ethical dilemma 15

 

OBJECTIVE

 

During the course of every day, various ethical issues will

 

require you to make decisions that may affect your career,

 

your personal life, and perhaps the life or livelihood of others,

 

including your coworkers, friends, and potential criminal

 

defendants. Throughout this course, you’ll read about and

 

analyze various topics that people in the criminal justice

 

field encounter.

 

At the end of most of the chapters in your textbook, you’ll be

 

presented with a variety of ethics-related scenarios to evalu-

 

ate. You should consider what you’ve read in the text while

 

you analyze these scenarios, since your thoughts will help

 

you complete this course project.

 

Be sure to answer each of the questions as completely as

 

possible, using the information in your textbook and any

 

other information you’ve learned to support your positions.

 

The questions have no absolute right or wrong answers. As

 

long as your answer is logical and you support it by referenc-

 

ing material you’ve learned in your textbook, you’ll do fine.

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

To satisfy the requirements for this project, you must prepare

 

five short, 250-word essays in response to five questions. Each

 

question is worth 20 points. The five questions are based on the

 

following fact scenario.

 

Fact Scenario

 

Imagine you’re working as an administrator in a police depart-

 

ment in your local town or city. Each day you interact with

 

police officers in your department, police officers from other

 

departments, various members of your office staff, other

 

public

 

officials, members of the public, representatives from the pr

 

ess,

 

potential criminal defendants, and others.

 

Research Project

 

Research Project

 

Ethics in Criminal Justice

 

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As you prepare your answers to the questions, keep in mind

 

that you’re a public official and that you have a duty to uphold

 

justice and follow the law.

 

Ethical Dilemma 1: Gun Rally

 

One afternoon you receive an anonymous tip that a local gun

 

advocacy group is going to hold a rally in the town square the

 

next day. The group hasn’t applied for a permit to have such

 

a rally, but they’ve held such events in the past and they’ve

 

always been peaceful. You strongly support Article 2 of the

 

Constitution and the beliefs of the gun advocacy group, and

 

you don’t want to do anything that will hurt them or their

 

members. You believe the anonymous tipster is providing

 

accu-

 

rate information, but you can’t be absolutely sure. You also

 

believe no one else in your police department is aware of the

 

impending event.

 

What do you do? Give reasons to support your decision.

 

Ethical Dilemma 2: Chief’s Orders

 

Assume that in response to question 1 you decided to advise

 

your fellow police officers about the tip you received. You

 

gather a group of officers together the next day in case the

 

unlawful rally is held. As the gun advocacy group begins to

 

appear on the town square green, you confer with the chief

 

officer on duty that day. She tells you to wait until the entire

 

group has gathered and then storm the area, with tear gas

 

and billy clubs. You’re further instructed to arrest everyone

 

you can and to charge them with unlawful assembly, tres-

 

passing, rioting, and anything else you can come up with.

 

She also makes some very derogatory comments about any-

 

one who supports such a group, claiming they’re terrorists

 

and thugs. You personally disagree with the chief and believe

 

she’s acting both improperly and immorally, allowing her

 

personal beliefs to interfere with her legal responsibilities

 

as a police officer.

 

What do you do? Do you follow her orders? Why or why not?

 

Explain your answer.

 

Research Project

 

51

 

Ethical Dilemma 3: Accepting Favors

 

You’re asked to investigate the gun advocacy group and their

 

activities. To do so, you need to work with the police depart-

 

ment in the next county. After contacting their chief, you’re

 

assigned to work with another seasoned officer who has also

 

been conducting some preliminary investigations of the group.

 

You decide to do some field investigations together the follow-

 

ing day. While you’re out doing your investigations, the other

 

officer decides to stop at the local convenient market for a

 

sandwich and coffee. He picks up what he wants, waves to

 

the owner, and returns to the police vehicle—without paying

 

for the items. When you ask him about it, he says that he

 

has an “arrangement” with the owner and not to worry about

 

it. He explains that he and the store owner help each other

 

out (meaning the officer provides additional protection to the

 

store in exchange for the food). Finally, he

 

says, “If you’re hungry, go inside and pick up what you want.”

 

What do you do and what concerns do you have? Explain

 

your answers.

 

Ethical Dilemma 4: Reporting a Deal

 

You happen to be in the courthouse during the trial of some

 

of the members of the gun advocacy group. As you walk by

 

the chambers of the judge who is presiding over the trial of

 

this case, you overhear the judge and the chief prosecutor

 

discussing the case. The judge is talking about one of the

 

defendants in the case and is making some very derogatory

 

comments. In the past, you’ve often appeared in trials before

 

this judge, and you’ve always felt he has been fair and impar-

 

tial to all involved. In this case, however, you’re concerned that

 

the judge and prosecutor may be engaging in inappropriate

 

activity. This situation is particularly troublesome because

 

the trial is proceeding at the request of all parties as a bench

 

trial, with the decision being rendered by the judge without

 

the benefit of a jury. What would you do? Explain your answer.

 

Ethics in Criminal Justice

 

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Ethical Dilemma 5: Breaking Prison Rules

 

In the course of your investigation of the gun advocacy group,

 

you have to go to your local county prison to question one of

 

the group members being held there pending trial. This par-

 

ticular individual has been a problem inmate and is being held

 

in solitary confinement. He’s to have no contact with other

 

members of the group. You meet with him in a private inter-

 

rogation room with no one else in attendance. He knows that

 

you generally support the group, and he does his best to

 

answer your questions, although his answers aren’t always as

 

complete as you would like. At the end of the questioning—

 

just before he rises to leave the room—he slips you a note

 

in a sealed envelope and asks that you give it to someone

 

who is involved in the gun advocacy group. He says it’s very

 

important and implores you to just hand it to the person or

 

drop it in the mail. He then leaves the interrogation room.

 

What do you do? Explain your answer.

 

PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

 

1. Create a title page with the following information:

 

a. Title: Ethics in Criminal Justice

 

b. Your name

 

c. Your Student Number

 

d. Project number: 50176000

 

e. Current date

 

2. Prepare your answers to the ethical dilemmas in a

 

word-processing program. Each answer should be at

 

least 250 words.

 

3. Double-space your answers, with left and right margins

 

of 1 to 1.25 inches, flush left and ragged right. Use a

 

plain 12-point font.

 

Research Project

 

53

 

4. Incorporate and properly reference any sources of infor-

 

mation you’ve used to develop your answers. To cite your

 

sources, please follow this procedure:

 

a. Use in-text citations to indicate references to infor-

 

mation from outside sources. Include the author’s

 

name and the relevant page number(s) in parenthe-

 

ses. Here’s an example: Human beings have been

 

described as “symbol-using animals” (Burke 3).

 

b. At the end of your paper, include a Works Cited

 

page, listing all of the sources you’ve consulted.

 

Use either MLA or APA format for this page. For

 

information on how to prepare this page, go to the

 

Penn Foster Library and click on

 

Guidebooks andTips in the main menu.

 

5.Read over your work carefully. Make sure it’s professional

 

with correct formatting, grammar, and citations, along

 

with adequate support for any arguments you make.

 

6. Submit the final draft of your work, along with the title

 

page, only after you’ve completed writing your answers

 

to each dilemma.