Code Of Ethics In Criminal Justice

Within the field of Criminal Justice the understanding of ethics and its sub characteristics is an important aspect that inexperienced law officials must obtain. Ethics, unknowingly to some, molds and attributes to the actions and lifestyles held by individuals. A situation is presented to an inexperience law official, where the individual must determine an action based on intellectual reasoning. The official is invited for an evening meal along with a fellow member of law. As the meal ends it is brought to the official’s attention that the meal will be of no cost. The owner of the establishment reason is that officials do not owe due to the contribution to society. With intellectual reasoning the official must make a decision on what action …show more content…
As stated within the article Police Ethics: The Creed by Chuck Klein, ethical behavior can be defined as a set of moral values and principles that are based on honesty, truthfulness, and have been accepted in professional situations (Klein, 2012). Ethics, or otherwise associated with morals, is seen as the determination between what is right and wrong (Resnik, 2011). Conversely, ethics and morals are relatively different in the definition that morals represent the kind of characteristic an individual possesses whilst ethics is the code of conduct that applies to said morals (Wise, 2015). This code of conduct is seen within multiple professions thru the ideology of the unwritten rule, “Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you”, (Resnik, 2011). Specifically, a profession that strongly integrates ethics is the Criminal Justice Profession due to the importance to distinguish between the conduct of a criminal, victim, and ethically correct officer. Policing recognizes that ethics builds trust, respect, and communication within communities therefore the code of ethics is strongly enforced (COPS Office, 2015). As the researcher begins to understand the importance of ethics, an own definition of ethics is composed. Ethics is the written understanding …show more content…
For example when an officer responds to a call certain categories are examined which include the officers decision making skill, cooperation, professional attitude, and level of commitment (Carter, 2006). These categories all contribute to whether or not an officer demonstrates professionalism within the work field. The writer concurs that professionalism is the ability to understand, respond, and infer proper behaviors and reactions to certain situation. With professionalism incorporated within a police force, integrity is present as