NCJ Number
202044
Date Published
2003
Length
187 pages
Annotation
This book discusses how the Jewish tradition can affect police ethics.
Abstract
Chapter 1 describes the background of this book, its purpose, and focus. The origin of this study was an investigation of motive in Jewish criminal law. The moral questions raised in works on police ethics and integrity appeared to have similarities in Jewish material. One aspect of this study is the Jewish tradition; the other is the world of police work and the police culture. The method for identifying and exploring these concepts is the transposition of Jewish material and the examination of it in a new context. Chapter 2 discusses the concept of group loyalty. General considerations of Jewish group loyalty, whistleblowing, and responsibility and the surrender of a person are all discussed in this chapter. The implications for police culture are summarized. Chapter 3 focuses on bribery and gratuities in the Jewish tradition, non-legal traditional literature, and police tradition. The ideas suggested by traditional Jewish materials may aid in developing a more practical policy for police administrators that allows gratuities while still maintaining an ethical barrier against bribery and corruption. The concept of deception is discussed in chapter 4. The morality of deceit, deceptions in police work, the threefold typology, and deception in Jewish tradition are also described. The three-fold typology is: (1) no decent and law abiding person should be persuaded into the commission of an unlawful act; (2) various techniques in tradition were designed to prevent any untruth from perverting justice; and (3) when dealing with criminals, deception appears to be justified and laudable. Chapter 5 reviews and summarizes the subjects of police training and ethics, Jewish ethics and police ethics, and the three areas of interest, which are loyalty, bribery and gratuities, and police deception. 193 footnotes, appendix, index