NCJ Number
194100
Editor(s)
Paul Leighton,
Jeffrey Reiman
Date Published
2001
Length
543 pages
Annotation
This book is a collection of articles that represent different moral beliefs about criminal justice issues.
Abstract
In the Introduction section, the main approaches to ethics are reviewed along with reasons why people should be moral. Suggestions are made about the process of discussing sensitive issues of social policy and personal morality in the classroom. Section I views the conditions under which society can hold an individual responsible for acts it considers crimes. The relationship between law and moral values is examined. The obligations minorities have to obey the laws when the state fails in its obligation to protect citizens from urban crime are explored. What is guilty about a guilty mind is discussed, along with why the guilty are appropriately blamed and punished. What the law aims to punish is also discussed. Section II considers a number of currently debated areas of lawmaking: drug legalization, prostitution, corporate crime, hate crimes, and abortion. Section III reviews the important moral issues involved in the main functions of criminal justice: policing, judicial processing, and punishment. Issues relating to the question of how far the police can go in using deception, seduction, and entrapment to catch criminals are discussed, as are police discretion and selective enforcement of the law. The cynicism about lawyers and the concept of lawyers’ ethics are discussed in Section IV. The policies and practices involved in processing defendants through the courts are reviewed. Section V discusses penology and the search for alternatives to incarceration, which include chain gangs, corporal punishment, and the death penalty. Section VI deals with new moral issues, such as computers and privacy, the merits of Megan’s law that requires community notification of sex offenders, the appropriateness of the term rape in a virtual chat room and the appropriate response, and the power of the media to shape perceptions about crime and justice. Appendix