Every state, governmental entity, and corporation has an in-house policy on ethics. Ethics are mere
directives to public officials to avoid conflict of interest, providing broadly stated, aspirational
guidelines to conduct themselves with respect to the rightness or wrongness of certain actions; and to
the goodness and to the badness of the motives, and ends of such actions. Ethics in Criminological
Research deals with the social science of criminal justice, but is individually tied to deep moral
judgments. Judgments that come from the bench, in the prosecutor’s office, in the field with law
nforcement, corrections, or our public officials and their employees.
Ethical policies and statutes are
responsible to protect the democratic process, hold public officials
responsible for their negligent actions, ensure the safety and sanctity of
members or employees of an entity, and for the public to hold each official accountable
for their actions. O.C.G.A. 28-11-2
states:
"...to foster
the knowledge, professionalism, and standards of its membership."
The Academy of Criminal Justice
Sciences (ACJS) and the American Society of Criminology (ASC) created a code of
ethics to govern research for criminal behavior. Ethical conduct in criminological research as
stated by Frank E. Hagen,
“Ethical horror stories in
criminology and the social sciences include both biomedical and social science
example (F.E. Hagan, 2013).”
In WWII, Nazi’s tortured, maimed,
and murdered innocent people in the name of research. There was the Tuskegee Experiment, The
Guatemala Syphilis study, and other experiments that occurred in history that
brought about a meticulous code of ethics that researchers had to adhere to or
face arduous consequences like criminal charges for violating these codes of
ethics established by ACJS. Several
other studies include Stanly Milgrim’s 1974 research of how “normal’ people
come to commit monstrous acts; Zimbardo’s simulated prison study, where male
undergraduate students role played guards and prisoners in a mock prison
setting in the basement of a Stanford University building; or Laud Humphreys’
1970 involved studying secret male homosexual activities in public restrooms.
As a Muslim I cannot make
allowances for judgments that are not sound in situations where life and limb
are determined. Stress and anxiety
causes us to react to situations in an incorrect or unethical manner, but in
those life-threatening moments we call upon our experience, knowledge, and
resources to bring us through those intense moments. Recently Miriam Carey was driving with her
daughter in the backseat, when she rammed a security barrier at the Whitehouse.
“At mid-afternoon, Carey's car was surrounded by
police on Capitol Hill.
The officers tried to pin the car against a
sidewalk barrier, but she rammed a cruiser and sped away. Numerous officers
opened fire.
"I heard the gunshots, and then the car tore
out of the area back, you know, toward this direction with the police cars
following," witness Peter Plocky told reporters.
The vehicle raced around the west front of the
Capitol building and then a short time later the car jumped a curb and came to
a stop on the east side of the Capitol.
The driver was shot multiple times by Secret
Service and Capitol Police officers. She was later pronounced dead.
The driver was not
armed when she engaged police in downtown Washington, but investigators say she
was clearly using the black coupe as a weapon, and officers responded, opening
fire, ending what they saw as a threat.”
Charlissa
Hunter of Facebook commented on the CBS link:
“What
was wrong with shooting the tires? If
the woman was unarmed who shot the officer? This looks like nonsense.”
Policy is written in the form of
Administrative Regulations and Standard Operating Procedures, dictating to
public officials and their employees what to do concerning those individuals
under their supervision or control. The
policy is the how to guide on how to best manage, treat, control, talk to,
relate to, and what type of programming is needed to be better effective or
maximize profit.
Back on April 16, 2013, John Hopkins
University's Human Rights Working Group hosted a workshop called
"Legality, Politics, and Ethics of Militarized Drones. They discussed how police in some cities
profit from incarceration from the people that they are policing, so peace is
not in their interest. When profits are
a part of this equation then senseless shootings will prove harder to curb due
to the objective of the individual officer, the officer’s motivation for
performance, and the object of the officer’s desire.
In Yankton, South Dakota Federal Prison
guards are not getting paid due to the shutdown, but the inmates that they are
guarding are. Working on an IOU from the
government, frustration and lack of funds can bring ethics into question.
"It gets frustrating when you've got a group of individuals sitting in
Washington getting paid, and they're basically doing nothing for us right
now," she said.
"We just would like to be compensated and have Congress just pass a
bill, pass a budget, get us some money. I mean, we can't operate forever,"
Kunkel said.
This prison is only one of many that are
affected by the government shutdown, and they will be compensated for their
missed wages, but what about those people who make unethical decisions without
being under the stress of a government shut down? Like those prison
guards who bring in ‘illegal contraband’.
Another
example of ethics is in a video I seen on Youtube, posted by Rafeal Smith. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, (D) Maryland, was
using House rule 22, clause 4, which is a standing house rule, to try to bring
an end to this government shutdown, but was rebutted by Rep. Jason Chaffetz,
speaker pro tempore, who used House resolution 368 to justify altering the
operation of the standing rule. If you
listen to the video you will see how Rep. Chaffetz trips is at a loss for his
own words. Ethically he doesn’t seem to
have the best interest of the American people in this situation and would rather
go into default. Mariella Elita Amanda Browne of facebook commented on this
video, "Democracy
has been suspended!" All of a sudden House Rule 22, Clause 4 is no longer
applicable. SMH. That Speaker and the republicans who on that bulls**t are the
biggest of disappointments. The World is looking on and just shaking their
heads. Real talk.
Based
on the International Crime Victim Survey and the National Crime Victim Survey,
I think thatthe differences in ethical conduct is the different interest that each law enforcement agency has in the
criminal element that they deal with forming a deterrent effect in some unethical conduct that can
easily occur. The movie Brooklyn’s Finest, 2010 chronicled the ethical and moral values of police
and criminals as they act and interact, in their everyday lives. Every scene had a moral to it, but you
had to either be a gangster or a police to see that moral. Ethical behavior cannot be termed
androcentric, which means male-centered overwhelmingly, because women and men hold equal
positions of power and influence, and each are prone to the commission of unethical behavior when
faced with a moral dilemma. Lack of financial resources has been equated to less power. With less
oney, individuals have less of a voice in our society. We commit unethical behavior to obtain
more wealth, to ensure that our voice is heard. Ethics violations usually involve public officials and
their staff or employees, but good judgment equals out to be good ethical conduct, and good ethical
conduct makes for better relations with the community that law enforcement is policing, better
productivity and performance from staff and employees, and better feedback from members of
governmental entities in the city and state.
