Study of Ethics in Criminology and Criminal Justice Curricula

• NCJ Number: 87788
• Author(s): L W Sherman
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 60 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-CD-AX-0001
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: Joint Cmssn on Criminology and Criminal Justice Education and Standards
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; Joint Cmssn on Criminology and Criminal Justice Education and Standards; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

There is a serious need for teaching and research on the applied ethics of criminal justice. Courses on these issues can be easily adapted to virtually all levels and kinds of criminal justice issues.

Abstract

The goals of such courses should include stimulating the moral imagination, developing skills in the recognition and analysis of ethical issues, eliciting a sense of moral obligation, fostering the ability to tolerate and resist disagreement and ambiguity, understanding the morality of coercion, integrating technical and moral competence, and becoming familiar with the full range of moral issues in criminology and criminal justice. Ethics courses should teach students approaches for formulating the ethical issues of a situation rather than prescribing specific behaviors to be followed in defined situations. This requires the presentation of formal ethical theories and frameworks which are necessary for a rigorous analysis of any difficult ethical problem. Any effort to establish an ethics course should give attention to the unique teaching issues for ethics, including who shall teach, diverse student backgrounds, course organization, instruction methods, and evaluation of student performance. Sixty-three references are listed, and addresses are provided for obtaining professional codes of ethics relevant to criminal justice. (Author summary modified)