Write a three to five (3-5) [that is a minimum] page paper in which you: 1. Create a philosophy and approach for balancing the issues of individual rights and the public’s protection. Provide one to two (1 to 2) examples illustrating how you will balance the two issues in your own career in law enforcement. Using your philosophical approach how do you balance the needs of both the individual and society’s need for order and safety. How do you do this in your chosen career. You need to identify your career and how this will apply. This question is asking you to “create” your own philosophy that balances the tension between individual rights and public safety. For instance there are limits as to how far you can go to compromise individual rights because of the Constitution. However, if you are a consequentialist, and the ends justify the means then you can squeeze Constitutional Rights. If you are a Kantian then the Constitution trumps. You can model your chosen philosophy on any of the various ethical theories that have been presented, or combine them. Most theories boil down to deontology or teleology. Using your philosophical approach how do you balance the needs of both the individual rights an autonomy which includes privacy, and society’s need for order and safety. How do you do this in your chosen career. You need to identify your career and how this will apply. Remember to prove one or two examples that illustrate your argument.
The biggest problem I see with this question is that students do not identify their philosophy, and do not make a decision as to how do you balance personal rights and public safety. What criteria will you use to decide which is more important?
2. Determine a philosophy and approach for balancing the use of reward and punishment in criminal justice. Provide one to two (1-2) examples illustrating how you will use this philosophy in your own career. Using your philosophical approach how do you balance the use of rewards and punishments to ensure that they are fairly handed out. You have to decide your goal, and explain why your choice of rewards or punishments meets the goals. What will be rewarded, and what punished. You need to identify your career and how this will apply. Using the philosophical approach that you have chosen, how do you balance the use of rewards and punishments to ensure that they are fairly handed out. See pp 90-92, 114-117and/or Chapter 8 of the text. You have to decide your goal, and explain why your choice of rewards or punishments meets the goals. What will be rewarded, and what punished. You need to identify your career and how this will apply. The biggest mistake I see on this question is not tying management recommendations to a particular ethical/philosophical approach.
3. Select a philosophy and approach that addresses the use of immoral means (e.g., torture or lying in interrogation) to accomplish desirable ends. Provide one to two (1-2) examples illustrating how you will use this philosophy in your own career. By now you should be on a roll. First identify what you consider “immoral means”. Remember that there is a huge difference between torture and lying in interrogations. Most systems recognize that torture is a violation of human rights and not accepted by any ethicaVmoral code. The debate of waterboarding is whether or not it is torture, not whether torture is permitted. Deontology might argue that any lying is not permitted while utilitarianism might support the use of lying to achieve a greater good. The question specifically asks for a utilitarian analysis. You do not have to use torture and lying in interrogations. You can identify something else. The critical piece is this is asking for a utilitarian analysis of something that many people would not accept as permissible. You need to identify your career and how this will apply.
4. Explain what you believe the Ethics of Care and Peacemaking Criminology presented in your textbook should mean for law enforcement professionals. This is a straight forward question. Read the sections in the textbook, then explain how they each can be applied effectively by law enforcement professionals .
