Recommendations and strategies to help build high integrity among Criminal Justice personnel

Full Answer Section

      Options:

• Comply with the patient's request, potentially facing legal repercussions and personal ethical conflict.
• Refuse the request, adhering to legal and professional standards but potentially causing prolonged suffering to the patient.
• Explore alternative pain management options, aiming to balance patient comfort with medical ethics.

Affected parties:

• The patient: whose suffering and end-of-life experience are directly impacted.
• The medical professional: faces ethical, legal, and emotional challenges.
• The patient's family: may experience grief and conflict related to the situation.
• The healthcare institution: could face legal and reputational risks.

Laws and guidelines:

• Laws prohibiting assisted suicide.
• Medical ethics emphasizing patient autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

Decision-making: In this complex scenario, the medical professional would likely consult with colleagues, ethics committees, and legal experts. Ultimately, the decision would involve weighing the potential benefits and harms of each option, considering the patient's wishes, and adhering to professional and legal standards.

2. Building High Integrity in Criminal Justice

Police

• Transparency and accountability: Implementing body cameras, civilian oversight boards, and strict use-of-force policies.
• Ethical training: Providing comprehensive ethics training that addresses power dynamics, bias, and corruption.
• Recruitment and selection: Rigorous background checks and psychological evaluations to identify candidates with strong ethical character.

Courts

• Judicial independence: Protecting judges from political and external pressures.
• Impartiality: Ensuring judges and court personnel avoid conflicts of interest and bias.
• Public trust: Promoting open and transparent court proceedings.

Corrections

• Human rights focus: Prioritizing the humane treatment of inmates.
• Staff training: Providing ethics training to correctional officers to address issues like abuse of power and corruption.
• Rehabilitation programs: Offering programs that promote rehabilitation and reduce recidivism.

Similarities and differences: All three branches share the need for ethical training, accountability, and transparency. However, the specific challenges and strategies vary. Police officers face unique pressures related to use of force and public scrutiny, while judges must maintain impartiality, and correctional officers deal with issues of power and control.

3. Major Areas of Ethics

• Meta-ethics: Explores the nature of morality and the meaning of ethical terms.
• Normative ethics: Develops moral standards that guide behavior.
• Applied ethics: Examines specific moral issues in areas like medicine, law, and business.

4. Ethics of Criminal Justice Professionals

Criminal justice ethics involves moral principles and values that guide behavior in law enforcement, courts, and corrections. It encompasses issues of fairness, justice, accountability, and human rights.

 

Sample Answer

      Imagine a medical professional facing a patient with a terminal illness who is in excruciating pain. Available treatments offer temporary relief but have severe side effects. The patient requests assisted suicide, a practice illegal in their jurisdiction. The medical professional is torn between the ethical principles of beneficence (doing good) and non-maleficence (avoiding harm).