preview

Criminal Justice Ethics Paper

Decent Essays

Introduction

Ethics in the criminal justice system is of great importance. Unlike other professions the individuals working within the criminal justice field have to work with individuals who violate laws and social values. This paper will focus on normative ethics, which basically means what individuals ought to do in a given situation. Out of all of the professions within the criminal justice system ethical behavior within the police force is arguably the most important.
Summary of Incident
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (2013), former Atlanta officer Elton Augustin was sentenced to two years for conspiring to accept bribes and lying to the FBI. While employed at the Atlanta police department, Augustin while off duty worked …show more content…

Augustin was a part of the Atlanta police department, because of this he was required to follow a strict ethical code. According to the Atlanta Police Departments policy manual every officer has to take the same oath. This oath taken directly from the Atlanta police department’s code of ethics (2013) lays out some ethical values that police are to follow, within this oath contain the value of protecting the innocent and the weak. In addition this code of ethics lays out the value of justice and treating all people equally. One last important value I will pull out of the code of ethics is to enforce the law equally without favor to anyone and not accepting gratuities (APDP Policy manual, 2013). When Augustin took that oath he agreed to follow these ethical values however, within his actions he violated all of them. When he prioritized making some etra money over the safety of citizens he put himself over others. In addition, when he agreed to prevent officers from investigating the club Augustin prioritized the club owner over all the citizens attending the

Get Access