The Role Of Ethics In The Criminal Justice System

Ethics are the foundation of the criminal justice system: It’s what helped us develop the moral reasoning we use, how we define criminal activity, and what we as a society deem as acceptable punishment. It’s an important topic because our criminal justice system is most effective when it’s operating in an ethical manner.
1. Police
We have lots of ways to examine how ethics can influence police behavior, including how the police interact with a community and how that community interacts with police.
When the police are perceived to be operating to be ethically, the community is more likely to be open and ethical when dealing with them. This includes working together on crime prevention.
2. Attorneys
Ethical behavior, of course, isn’t
We can follow the spirit or the letter of the law, and we need to allow (and expect) attorneys to be doing both.
3. Self-Participation
Often times we don’t think that the way people interact with criminal justice professionals is part of the ethical equation, but it is. We need to consider people’s willingness to share information and to be part of the system. This includes everything from participating in jury duty to self-reporting local criminal activity. (Gruber, 2017)
To be successful, criminal justice system leaders need to think strategically, communicate locally, and act ethically while developing comprehensive solutions to crime and terrorism. Among the many challenges we face are criminal behavior trends like street violence, gangs, guns, human trafficking, terrorist activities, and cyber crime.
What are the challenges keeping us up at night? Here are five:
1. Drug use and the crime
Broadly speaking, are we looking for the “big” arrests or misdemeanors? Should we focus on restorative justice or community safety? Are those two mutually exclusive?
This is going to be a big focus of research and scholarship in the coming years.
3. The high incarceration rate .
As of the last available data, 2 million people were incarcerated for crimes in the U.S. and almost 7 million people were were under supervision. We need to figure out why this is. It’s an issue that affects more than the criminals—it has huge impacts on those in and out of the communities where the crimes took place.
Economics also plays a role: We spend about $50 billion a year in correctional efforts. The Attorney General has noted both of these, so it is an issue on the national stage.
4. Violence against women .
According to the National Institute of Justice , about 1.3 million women are physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year. And stalking is more common than previously thought.
We need to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system’s response to these crimes.
5. The “three strikes” legislation