Instructions
Module 2 Assignment 1
Course Learning Objective
- Demonstrate the ability to identify and understand the basic ethical and philosophical tenets of criminal justice.
- Demonstrate the ability to think critically on ethical issues in criminal justice, analyzing and interpreting situations, events, practices, and cases.
- Demonstrate the ability to link ethics and philosophy to criminal justice decision-making in law enforcement, courts, and corrections.
- Demonstrate a sound general knowledge of the ethical and philosophical concepts to address criminal justice ethical issues.
Instructions for this Assignment
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to apply the ethical systems learned in Module 2 readings and video lecture.
Tasks:
PART 1
You are a police officer patrolling late at night and see a car weaving back and forth across lanes of traffic. You easily suspect either DUI or some form of distracted driving so you turn on your siren and lights and the car pulls over. Before you approach the car, the driver stumbles out of the car, obviously intoxicated. There is no question that the driver meets the legal definition of intoxication. The driver also happens to be your favorite person (e.g. mother, father, sibling, cousin, best friend, grandma, grandpa, coach, teacher, etc.)
- How would a utilitarian officer respond?
- Be sure you use all components described in the lecture.
- How would an ethical formalist officer respond?
- How would a virtuous (ethics of virtue) officer respond?
- How would a caring (ethics of care) officer respond?
Now imagine the same scenario and the person is a complete stranger.
- How would a utilitarian officer respond? Be sure you use all components described in the lecture.
- How would an ethical formalist officer respond?
- How would a virtuous (ethics of virtue) officer respond?
- How would a caring (ethics of care) officer respond?
If your answers are different based on whether the person you pulled over is your favorite person and when the person you pullover is a stranger, justify your response using one of the above ethical systems (you are not allowed to use egoism, religion, or natural law in this response).
PART 2
Reflect on The Trolley Car Dilemma and answer the following questions:
- How would a utilitarian respond?
- What about act utilitarianism?
- What about rule utilitarianism?
- How would an ethical formalist respond?
- How would a religious person respond (use divine command theory in your reading)?
- How would a person of Natural Law respond?
PART 3
A gunman has walked into the mall and opened fire on several people. Emily Doe just so happened to also be at the mall packing heat and decides to take down the shooter, but in the midst of shooting the gunman, an innocent person was also killed by Emily Doe.
- How would an ethical formalist view the act of killing the gunman AND innocent victim?
- How would a utilitarian view the act of killing the gunman AND innocent victim?
- What about act utilitarianism? What about rule utilitarianism?
- How would a religious person respond (use divine command theory from your reading)?
- How would a person of Natural Law?
PART 4
Use the “Virtue Continuum” that is in your PowerPoint and explain how each characteristic in the middle are good characteristics for a Criminal Justice professional to have? Next, explain why the deficiencies on the left and the excess characteristics on the right would be bad for a Criminal Justice professional to have.
Assignment Formatting Instructions
- Double-spaced
- 12pt. Times New Roman font only
- 1″ margins on all sides
- Name, date, course in the top right corner
- A centered title
- All answers must be in complete sentences and shall be between 500-750 words.
- Proofread your work as spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization count.
- Any sources used should be properly cited in APA format.
Submission Format
Use the following format when naming your file: your First Initial and Last Name with the Assignment Name.
Example: JDoeModule1Assignment.docx