Cyndi Banks' Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice
No serious-minded individual over the age of twelve actually thinks that justice and ethical issues involved in criminality are purely black-and-white or clear-cut issues of good and bad. The first chapters of Cyndi Banks' (2008) Criminal Justice Ethics, however, make it clear that the issues of right and wrong in the criminal justice system are far more complex, specific, and subtle than one might have guessed, even when grand and overarching principles serve as the ultimate source for the ethical considerations in a criminal justice case. Especially when supplemented by additional research regarding the workings of the criminal justice system and the application of ethics in cranial justice decisions and policies, the first chapters of this book have a profound effect in shaping an awareness of such considerations.

The Importance of Ethics

One of the most profound impacts the first chapter of Banks' (2008)…...

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References

Banks, C. (2008). Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Chin, G. (2002). Race, the War on Drugs, and the Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction. Journal of Gender, Race, & Justice 6: 253.

Easton, M., Den Boer, M., Janssens, J. Moelker, R. & Vanderbeken, T. (2010). Blurring Police and Military Roles. Berlin: Hogent.

In turn, the military institution involved should indeed follow such guidelines and allow the press the opportunity to investigate all the sides of the issue. Once again, if these limitations and conditions cannot be guaranteed by either the press or the military institution, the association with a single conglomerate cannot be ethical, as there is an inherent conflict of interest.
In this regard, there should be a continuous recognition that some press freedom will be restricted in the interest of the public and national security. Only when the necessary limitations are in place can the military operate from unified basis of ethics. And only then can military institutions guarantee that their actions will at all times be aimed towards public protection and national safety and security. Time, place and circumstances always play a role in the restrictions on both military action and press reports. Only when both function within the…...

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Bibliography

Kirkwood, R. Cort. (2003, June 21). The Military vs. Free Speech.  http://www.lewrockwell.com/kirkwood/kirkwood18.html 

Maloney, Samuel D. Ethics Theory for the Military Professional. http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/au-24/maloney.pdf

The Independent (2002, 25 March) Onora O'Neill: Freedom of the press cannot be unrestricted.  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/onora-oneill-freedom-of-the-press-cannot-be-unrestricted-655228.html 

White, Barry. (2007, June 15). Swiss trio cleared by military court. In the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom.  http://www.cpbf.org.uk/body.php?subject=freedom%20of%20information&id=1681

Ethics Policy
Going by history, the chain gangs found in America were mostly used as tools for humiliating, controlling and terrorizing the African-Americans. The chain gang reappeared in 1995 as a type of punishment in Alabama prisons, thus bringing back to life one of the most shameful and powerful symbol of America's bequest of institutionalized ethnic subjugation and racial prejudice. The 8th Amendment prohibits all punishments that are not in agreement with the evolving decency standards that exhibits the growth of an emergent civilization. Slavery was not abolished immediately as a consequence of implementation of the 13th Amendment.

Despite the constitutional provisions for the total prohibition of slavery; the remnants of slavery could still be found in several economic, political and social contexts. Under the disguise of criminal justice, slavery was almost unashamedly re-implemented. Before the 13th Amendment saw the light of the day, repressive labor practices were introduced into Southern prisons…...

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References

Anderson, J.F., & Dyson, L. (2000). Alabama Prison Chain Gangs: Reverting to Archaic Punishment to Reduce Crime and Discipline Offenders. Western Journal of Black Studies, 24(1), 9.

Haley, S. (2013). "Like I Was a Man": Chain Gangs, Gender, and the Domestic Carceral Sphere in Jim Crow Georgia. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society, 39(1), 53-77.

Guttierrez, A. (2013). Sufferings peculiarly their own: the thirteenth amendment, in defense of incarcerated women's reproductive rights, 15 Berkeley J.Afri.-Am. L. & Pol'y.

Banks, C. (2004) Criminal justice ethics: theory and practice. SAGE.

The importance of ethics in the criminal justice field cannot be overemphasised. All participants must portray acceptable moral conduct for positive criminal justice outcomes to be achieved (Braswell, McCarthy & McCarthy, 2008). This is particularly true for correctional institutions, a major component of the criminal justice system. Correctional authorities play a crucial role in rehabilitating offenders and facilitating their transition back to the society. The role places huge ethical demands on correctional personnel. This paper outlines ethical requirements for correctional officers. First, a comprehensive job description of correctional officers is offered, along with the key stakeholders they work together with in the fulfilment of their day to day duties and responsibilities. Next, a number of practical work scenarios where ethical decision making is required are highlighted, with an evaluation of the relevance of theoretical perspectives to the scenarios. Finally, a code of ethics and best-practices checklist relevant for correctional officers…...

utilitarianism vs. Deontology
The case of Sam is one that raises ethical dilemma since Sam had stayed out of job market for long and immediately he gets the job, he finds there is some aspect he grossly disagrees with in his work. He realizes that the company adds some substance to their cigarettes that makes them addictive. This Sam disagrees with and would not like to be part of it, as a matter of fact he would like to expose them to the general public.

Taking a utilitarian angel to the case at hand, if Sam was a utilitarian, he would continue working and supervising his department and not expose discovery to the public. This is based on the fact that according to Bentham, Sam should think of what brings more pleasure than pain to him and follow that. Sam should also consider the extent of the pleasure he would derive…...

Deontological theory might criticize Guido's choice if the initial assumptions included the rule prohibiting lying. However, deontological analysis is only as useful as the underlying rules with respect to which it is applied. Therefore, the solution to the deontological issues raised by the issue presented by the movie is simply to reformulate a less restrictive rule that is incapable of being applied to every situation. Instead of proposing the rule that prohibits lying, the better rule might be to prohibit only lying for immoral purposes.

In fact, the blind adherence to rules under deontological principles often produces distinctly immoral results: it is difficult to imagine the moral purpose of informing a dying patient that a loved one was also killed in the same accident; nor is there a moral purpose for informing a child who is to young to understand the concept that he was adopted. In Guido's case, the sole…...

So it has been suggested that social context of care must be examined and to establish limits to the ethics of care. In contrast, constructive evaluation of care ethic indicates that sensitivity as well as emotional response to particular state of affairs such as family discussions with doctor provide significant guides to morally satisfactory actions plus care ethic also seem to favor accepting procedures from Conflict Resolution as well as Dispute Mediation as optional way to approach evident ethical disagreement (Online Guide to Ethics and Moral Philosophy, 1996).
So on the whole, if we think regarding repair as something that should involve tools at least the type of tools found in hardware as well as plumbing supply stores and at construction sites, our cast of fixing characters is frequently going to involve men not for the reason that all men have them or apply them even if they have them…...

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Bibliography

Virginia Held. The Ethics of Care. New York: Oxford University Press, Feb 2007.

Gilligan, Carol, et al. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Devolpment. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Ethics of Care." Online Guide to Ethics and Moral Philosphy 1996. April 4, 2008  http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cavalier/80130/part2/II_7.html .

Spelman, Elizabeth V. "2 the Household as Repair Shop." Setting the Moral Compass: Essays by Women Philosophers. Ed. Cheshire Calhoun. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

The utilitarian perspective focuses on the broad impacts of the actions, rather than just how the actions affect specific individuals (Andre & Velasquez, 2010). From the utilitarian perspective, genetic testing has the potential to do great harm to many, and to benefit many. The utilitarian arithmetic points out that the benefits to the companies in utilizing genetic testing is that profits increase. The argument can also be made that wealthier companies provide more jobs and wealthier insurance companies are better able to pay out to those who do receive payments. The counter to the former point is that this employment is theoretical -- not only may it not occur, but it may not occur in the United States. The counter to the latter is that insurance is largely price inelastic, so there is no improvement in coverage likely from handing more profits to insurance companies.
On the harm side, many…...

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Works Cited:

Andre, C. & Velasquez, M. (2010). Calculating consequences: The utilitarian approach to ethics. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from  http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v2n1/calculating.html 

Cline, a. (2011). Deontology and ethics: What is deontology, deontological ethics? About.com. Retrieved February 20, 2011 from  http://atheism.about.com/od/ethicalsystems/a/Deontological.htm 

Miller, P. (2007). Genetic testing and the future of disability insurance: Thinking about discrimination in the genetic age. The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. Vol. 35 (2) 47-52.

Schafer, S. (2001). Railroad agrees to stop gene-testing workers. Washington Post. In possession of the author.

107) could also apply here. The confidentiality clause in such a case then only applies insofar as it is estimated that there is no need to disclose confidential information to others. In the case of Mrs. Z, her family deserves to know about her situation, because it affects their lives pertinently.
Because of the increasing cultural diversity throughout the world, cultural values also play an important part in making ethical decisions in the nursing profession. In the case of Mrs. Z, for example, she appears to have no powers of decision making either in her home or in society in general. Inside the home, her mother-in-law runs the household, while her husband is in charge of important decisions. This could have a significant influence upon her decision not to disclose her condition to her family.

According to Karahanne, Evaristo and Srite (2006, p. 34), for example, also note that cultures seldom…...

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References

Alligood, M.R., Marriner-Tomey, a. (2006). Nursing Theory: Utilization and Application. Elsevier Health Sciences.

DeWolf Bosek, M.S. And Savage, T.A. (2007) the Ethical Component of Nursing Education: Integrating Ethics into Clinical Practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Goodman, K.W. (2008, Jan) Privacy, Confidentiality, Law and Ethics. Norhteast Florida Medicine Supplement. Retrieved from:  http://www.dcmsonline.org/jax-medicine/2008journals/ethics/privacy.pdf 

Karahanna, E., Evaristo, J.R., and Srite, M. (2006). Levels of Culture and Individual Behavior: An Integtrative Perspective. Advanced Topics in Global Information Management, Vol. 5. Idea Group, Inc.

Ethics Awareness Inventory
According to the Ethics Inventory, I fell into two categories: those who are obligation-oriented, and those who are results-oriented. In some ways, the ethical beliefs of these two categories are in conflict; for instance, usually people who base ethical decisions on obligation or duty are not as concerned with results as with principles. However, I scored high in the results-oriented category as well. I believe that my ability to span both categories of ethical decision making have proved beneficial for me in the past and will continue to in the future. For example, the ethics awareness inventory analysis indicated that I do not operate in terms of absolutes; I do not feel that there can be any absolute standards of right and wrong because the world is too complex. Therefore, I am more prone to being open-minded and flexible than people who do feel that there should be…...

Ethics, Morality, Values, And Beliefs
According to "the ethics site," an Internet resource for college instructors regarding the teaching of different ethical systems, ethics may be defined as "the explicit, philosophical reflection on moral beliefs and practices. The difference between ethics and morality is similar to the difference between musicology and music. Ethics is a conscious stepping back and reflecting on morality, just as musicology is a conscious reflection on music." ("Glossary," The Ethics Site, 2005) In other words, ethics is the philosophy of what is right and wrong, while morality is the practice of ethics, or virtue in action.

The analogy between a musician and a musicologist proposed by the positioning of ethics vs. morality is interesting, because one might understand music very well, and be able to explain its theory and teaching as a musicologist. However, a great musicologist might be only a middling musician. In contrast, there are sixteen-year-olds…...

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Work Cited

"Glossary." The Ethics Site. 2005. [11 Feb 2005]http://ethics.acusd.edu/LMH/E2/Glossary.html.

Ethics
Utilitarianism is one of the most useful ethical theories. It can frame decisions made in almost every aspect of daily life, and also large-scale decisions made by organizations, enterprises, and governments. The basic principles of utilitarianism, as they were developed first by Jeremy Bentham and later by John Stuart Mill, are all based in the essential notion of utility. Utility means usefulness, but it is also related to net benefit.

Utility is defined in terms of the question, "Is this action beneficial? If so, who is it beneficial for, and how beneficial is it?" Utilitarian theory suggests that an ethical decision should weigh the greatest good for the greatest number of people. If an action is beneficial, it should be beneficial to the greatest number of stakeholders. It should be the decision that most maximizes the target population's happiness, or however success is being measured. This end result can be profit,…...

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References

"Ethics 5: Utilitarianism." [video]. Retrieved online:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdtWu4Cqx1Y 

"John Stuart Mill's Essay On Liberty." Retrieved online:  http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/jsmill.htm 

Santa Clara University (n.d.). A framework for thinking ethically. Retrieved online:  http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html

Ethics Awareness Inventory (EAI) is a way of measuring different people's ethical approaches. It measures ethics in four different dimensions: character, obligation, results, and equity. The combined score for character was 8, the combined score for obligation was 4, the combined score for results was -4, and the combined score for equity was -8. My ethical profile was most closely aligned with character, and least closely aligned with equity. My obligation and results scores were opposites, which was interesting because those two traits are thought be diametrically opposed.
The character perspective is aligned with virtue theory, and looks at what is good to be, rather than what is good to do. In other words, actions are not as critical as character. This means that the character perspective is not overly focused on actions. In fact, character looks more broadly at ethics than a simple determination of right and wrong and involves…...

Criticism of Consequentialism:
The deontological criticism of consequentialism would suggest that the very fact that two identical acts can be highly ethical or highly unethical in different circumstances renders consequentialism purely subjective and dependent on opinion instead of objective principles. In that view, the deontological ethical approach may produce unintended negative results on occasion, but at least deontological ethics are predictable and consistent; furthermore, deontological values lead to the better choice of conduct often enough to justify any specific instances where practical injustices could result from adherence to rules.

Adhering to rules is the surest way of ensuring ethical human conduct notwithstanding that isolated societies may establish rules that could be defined objectively as unethical. One of the best examples of the impracticality of consequentialism is the general law of false arrest in most American states. A citizen arrested unlawfully by a duly authorized law enforcement officer may not flee from…...

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References

Beauchamp, Bowie, & Arnold. (2009). Ethical Theory and Business. 8th Edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Ethics are often stronger than the laws of the land. Laws are cobbled together by special interests and have little to do with right and wrong, or personal ethical codes. For most people, their own personal codes of ethics will be stronger than the laws. People are much less likely to violate their own personal ethical codes than the laws.
Morals are codes of conduct put forward by a society, often within the context of a cultural or social group. Ethics are, following the Aristotelian tradition, a general guide to behavior that an individual adopts as his own guide to life (Gert, 2011). The relationship between the two is self-evident: while ethics are individual they are often strongly influenced by society's moral context.

Kohlberg (1971) outlined morals are being pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. Pre-conventional morals are in the obedience and punishment orientation and the self-interest orientation. Like when you learn that killing…...

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References

Anderson, K. (2009). Ethnographic research: A key to strategy. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved February 17, 2014 from  http://hbr.org/2009/03/ethnographic-research-a-key-to-strategy/ar/1 

Gert, B. (2011). The definition of morality. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved February 17, 2014 from  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/ 

Kohlberg, L. (1971) From Is to Ought: How to Commit the Naturalistic Fallacy and Get Away with It in the Study of Moral Development. New York: Academic Press.

Friedman, M. (1971). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times Magazine. Retrieved February 17, 2014 from  http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html