Theories Related To Ethics

Ashley Williams

Unit 4: Essay
Theories Related To Ethics

Kaplan University
CJ340-02
Instructor: Kevin Stoehr

June 14, 2011
The law enforcement officer, representing government, bears the heavy responsibility of maintaining, in his own conduct, the honor and integrity of all government institutions. He shall, therefore, guard against placing himself in a position in which any person can expect special consideration or in which the public can reasonably assume that special consideration is being given. Thus, he should be firm in refusing gifts, favors, or gratuities, large or small, which can, in the public mind, be interpreted as capable of influencing his judgment in the discharge of his duties.
The issue of police acceptance
He sees both the police officer who accepts a free cup of coffee and the police officer who is involved in drug dealing as corrupt it is only a matter of the degree of corruption involved. This slide into serious corruption is seen by Sherman and many others as a slippery slope. Once an officer is on the slope, the slide into serious corruption is, if not inevitable, at the very least difficult to stop. Does the acceptance of minor gratuities lead to more serious corruption, at least in some cases? Sherman certainly thinks so, and his analysis has some anecdotal support in the writings of corrupt police who have told the story of their decline.
Michael Feldberg, for example, suggests that the argument that gratuities lead to corruption is similar to the argument that marijuana use leads to heroin/cocaine addiction. He points out that most police are experienced in the arts of inducement and deception, and can tell the difference between a harmless gratuity and open bribery. But though this may be true, it does not show Sherman's assertion to be false. It does not mean that, because one can tell the difference between a gratuity and a bribe, one will not accept the bribe when it is offered.
Wilson, maintains that the societal structure is at fault for police corruption. Under this particular theory, police corruption is the result of certain prevalent actions of society. As Wilson explained it to citizens of Chicago, "the same kind of special consideration" that citizens were "buying for small amounts, could, by the same logic, be purchased by criminals and crime syndicates for larger amounts" (as cited by Delattre, 2006, p. 79). When a citizen, as a matter of hospitality or in exchange for some small consideration or favor, gives an officer a gratuity, that citizen has contributed to the corruption problem by opening the door for an officer to then accept larger amounts or goods in exchange for bigger favors. Another similar belief within the society at large theory is that officers become corrupt because of a belief that other sectors of the system are corrupt. If, for instance, officers see judges taking bribes to thwart justice, they might come to the conclusion that if a judge can do profit from such behavior, so too can