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Criminal justice involves a system of government institutions that are responsible for upholding social control as well as for deterring crime and sanctioning the people involved in violation of laws with penalties stipulated by law and rehabilitation efforts. It involves three major areas, namely law enforcement, adjudication, and corrections. Ethical standards of the criminal justice system are set so as to ensure that while social control is being upheld and crime contained, civil rights of the public are also not being compromised in any way. The ethics are set as rationally justifiable conduct of the people entrusted with society’s justice system, and they act as bars against which policies are made to protect both the public and those committed to working in the system. While the laws seek to protect the public from criminal acts, the accused persons are also protected against abuse of investigatory and prosecution powers. It is this protection by the laws that necessitates the presence of ethical standards in the criminal justice system. As a system intended to uphold social control and contain crime through investigations, arrests, prosecutions, convictions, and incarcerations the criminal justice system requires coordination between its three arms. Law enforcement requires to maintain a close working relationship with the adjudication and the corrections department as well so as to ensure relevance and efficiency in the entire justice system. Among the major ethical issues facing the criminal justice system is police brutality, corruption as well as the off-duty behavior of judicial officers.
Under police brutality, it is important to realize that the police can obtain a court permission to conduct searches and seizures on private properties as long as the court considers it reasonable to do so. This presents a difficult situation in trying to determine whether the police used necessary or excessive force since the court order or warrant seems to validate this act. Corruption, on the other hand, is widespread in most areas of government operations (Noble, 2003). Criminal justice system is thus not spared from this ethical problem. However, this paper focuses extensively on the off-duty behavior of criminal justice officers including the police, court officials, and correctional facilities’ staff.
Ethics are basically a question of morality. According to social constructionist theories, every society has its own definition of what is morally good and right. Thus, the ethics vary depending on the socio-cultural construction of that particular setting. However, there are universally accepted standards that ought to be met regardless of cultural dynamics of a society. For example, officers of the law are expected to live by the law and provide a good example to the citizens whom they are expected to offer service to and protect. They are not supposed to engage in unethical conduct, since their sole responsibility is to deter and mitigate criminal conduct in the society (Banks, 2013). They are also expected to be free from bias and uphold neutrality, such that their personal views and opinions do not affect their work. Basically, officers of the law need to live by their professional codes of conduct to avoid creating situations that may bring the image of justice system into disrepute. Among the important issues that arise with regard to the off duty behaviors of law officers include the will and mental capacity to serve as well as the reputation of cover ups and private interests. The main ethical issue is how the officers of the law behave themselves off duty. The major aspects of concern under this issue are discussed further in this paper.
Before joining the justice system, officers are usually taken through various vigorous physical and mental examinations that are meant to test their physical and mental capabilities with regard to their expected duties and responsibilities. In this sense, it can be said that those in the service are the most competent and capable, not forgetting willing. It is, therefore, important that officers of the law show an undisputable commitment to their duties of protecting civilians. When a distress call is issued either through screaming in an alley, or calling the police emergency lines, it is expected that police men and women on duty should respond immediately as a sign of their willingness and capacity to carry out their duties (Dripps, 1998). However, sometimes police officers within the area of crime are off duty. In these instances, many times criminals manage to get away from the crime scene because police officers off duty were not willing or able to respond to the distress call. Sometimes complaints are lodged that a citizen was being attacked, and when he or she tried to call the police they did not bother helping at all because they were off duty. Thus the question to be answered is: is it right to leave a vulnerable citizen at the mercy of attackers knowing that they cannot protect themselves simply because the officer is off duty?
Political personalities have been reported to own a number of correctional facilities across the country. This has created a number of doubts surrounding conviction of criminals in our courts of law. In most instances, the government has to pay the owners of the correctional facilities for as long as an inmate is kept there. This implies that the longer the sentence, the more money the government has to pay, thus the more profit made by the owners. This has created room for collusion between judicial officers and owners of correctional facilities driven by the desire to make more profits (Banks, 2013). A case like this is bound to bring up questions about the independence of the judicial system. How fair are the sentences that are given to convicted criminals? And how sure can the public be that the judges are not in any way influenced by political powers behind the correctional facilities?
Officers of the law are considered to be powerful and influential in political circles, and some of them actually have political aspirations. This implies that they interact closely with politicians, and attend political functions while off duty. This sets them up for compromise either as a way of gaining support for their future political aspirations or for monetary gains offered by these dirty politicians.
It is in this light that correctional facilities should be government or public owned to reduce any possibilities of conflicting interests. When the justice system is being questioned, there is practically no sustainable peace as there cannot be peace without justice. It is not right to have an opportunity for compromise in the ranks of justice, just as it is not right for officers of the law to be compromised. It would be a good idea to bar these officers from participation in politics in order to prevent them from seeking support from politicians. The issue of monetary compensation can, however, only be dealt with by imposing stiff penalties and impeccable ethical standards among the officers of law.
According to Noble (2003), officers of the law are required to be good examples to the citizens of the country. This implies that they are expected to live exemplary lives on and off duty in order to avoid public criticism of the criminal justice system. However, they are human beings as well. Society’s expectations from the officers of the law are so high that they are not in any way spared in case they commit a crime be it intentional or accidental. Knowing this, officers of the law have perfected the art of covering up their crimes to avoid detection and punishment in the eyes of the critical public (Noble, 2003). When caught, the punishment given is usually too small to have any positive impact since the public is not supposed to find out about it. This is definitely not right. Every citizen, including those dedicated to enforce the law, need to live by it and receive stipulated punishment for breaking it regardless of circumstances. Therefore, cover ups are not only unfair, but also extremely unethical regardless of situation. For a system required to uphold social control, administering corrective punishment for violations of the law should be a priority considering its importance in the rehabilitation of the perpetrators of the crime (Noble, 2003).
An example of a cover up is when a prison warden beats up and accidentally kills or cripples an inmate. Authorities will almost always fabricate a story to cover up what really happened, and the warden in question will be either transferred or left to walk away free. Such cases tarnish the name of criminal justice system and create a lot of doubts regarding the credibility of nation’s justice system. To curb this issue, the officers of the law need to understand that they too are under the law, which they are committed to upholding, and that they should strive to live as an example in order to avoid getting into situations that put their lives at risk as well as the reputation of the entire criminal justice system.
Conclusion
Ethics, as a question of morals, is heavily dependent on social interpretations and constructions for its definition. However, doing the right thing in a criminal justice system involves protecting civilians, deterring and mitigating crime as well as upholding social control while protecting civil rights of the accused and incarcerated persons. All actions that go against these duties and responsibilities are considered wrong and thus unethical for the system. While there is an established code of conduct set to govern officers of the law, they also need to use their socio-cultural settings in order to determine what is wrong and what is right. It is not right for officers of the law to ignore their duties on the basis of being off duty. Their willingness and capacity to carry out their duties gives them a full-time commitment to protect the civilians whenever they can, provided they are officers of the law. Also, they should not be put in a positions that allows them to be compromised or to have a conflict of interests. This is bound to reduce credibility of the justice system by forcing the hand of officers intended to uphold the law into serving other interests. Another important aspect under the conduct of officers while off duty is the use of cover ups. Officers of the law should be able to face consequences of their actions since they too are under the law. It is in this sense that they will be reformed enough to uphold the law and live by example thus avoiding situations in which the public has reasonable doubts on the competence of the justice system.
References
Banks, C. (2013). Criminal justice ethics: Theory and practice. 3rd Ed. New York: Sage Publications.
Dripps, D. A. (1998). The liberal critique of the harm principle. Criminal Justice Ethics, 17, 23-42.
Noble, J. (2003). Police officer truthfulness and the Brady decision. Police chief magazine, 70, 10-16.
