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Criminal Justice Ethics
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Criminal Justice Ethics
Theory and Practice

Sixth Edition


July 2024 | 672 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Criminal Justice Ethics, Sixth Edition examines the criminal justice system through an ethical lens by identifying ethical issues in practice and theory, exploring ethical dilemmas, and offering suggestions for resolving ethical issues and dilemmas faced by criminal justice professionals. Bestselling author Cyndi Banks draws readers into a unique discussion of ethical issues by exploring moral dilemmas faced by professionals in the criminal justice system before examining the major theoretical foundations of ethics. This distinct organization allows readers to understand real life ethical issues before grappling with philosophical approaches to the resolution of those issues.

 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
Part I: The Interaction Between Ethics and The Criminal Justice System
 
Chapter 1: The Importance of Ethics in Criminal Justice
The Meaning of Ethics

 
The Value of Ethics

 
Normative Ethics

 
Ethical Relativism

 
Cultural Relativism

 
Ethical Absolutism

 
Ethical Pluralism

 
Religion and Ethical Standards

 
Ethics and Natural Law

 
Ethics and Law

 
Ethical Dilemmas

 
Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice

 
 
Chapter 2: Police Ethics: The Nature of Policing and Police Corruption
Ethics and Policing

 
The Nature of Policing

 
Police as an Institution

 
Police Culture

 
Police Discretion

 
Ethics and Codes of Ethics

 
Policing and Stress

 
Police “Militarization”

 
Police Corruption

 
Discrimination as a Corrupt Practice in Policing: Racial Bias, Racial Profiling, and Selective Law Enforcement

 
 
Chapter 3: Police Ethics: Use of Force, Investigations, Interrogations, and Lying
Police Use of Force

 
Policing, Mental Illness, and Crisis Intervention Teams (CITs)

 
Ethical Issues in Investigation, Interrogation, and Custody

 
 
Chapter 4: Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System
Ethical Background

 
Historical Context

 
Is There Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System?

 
Imprisonment Disparities

 
Hate Crimes

 
Explanations for Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

 
 
Chapter 5: Judges, Lawyers, and Ethics
Legal Ethics: Historical Context

 
The Nature of Professional Ethics

 
The Prosecutor

 
Judicial Ethics

 
 
Chapter 6: The Purpose of Criminal Punishment
What Is Punishment?

 
Theoretical Approaches to Punishment

 
Why Punish? The Philosophical Approach

 
Restorative Justice

 
Why Punish? The Sociological Approach

 
 
Chapter 7: Ethics in Corrections: The Nature of Corrections
The Prison Explosion

 
Maximum Security

 
Medium Security and Minimum Security

 
Stateville Prison: The Changing State of Corrections

 
Corrections Subculture

 
Power and Authority in Prison: Controlling the Inmates

 
Private Prisons

 
Disenfranchising Inmates

 
Treating Opioid Abuse in Correctional Institutions

 
Aging Inmates and Compassionate Release

 
 
Chapter 8: Ethics in Corrections: Guarding Ethically
The Experience of Guarding

 
Guarding Ethically

 
Guarding With Discretion

 
Unethical Situations

 
Rape and Sexual Violence in Prison

 
Corruption

 
Oversight of Prisons

 
Ethical Issues in Probation and Parole

 
 
Chapter 9: The Ethics of Criminal Justice Policy Making
The Ethics of Policy Making

 
Morality Policy

 
Penal Policies and Mass Incarceration

 
Public Opinion About Punishment Policies

 
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

 
The War on Drugs

 
Truth in Sentencing

 
Sexual Predators

 
Capital Punishment

 
The “Criminalization” of Immigration

 
 
Chapter 10: Ethics and the “War on Terrorism”
Defining Terrorism

 
Warfare or Crime Control?

 
Other Responses to Terrorism

 
The Morality of Targeted Killing

 
 
Chapter 11: Media Ethics and Criminal Justice
Media Constructions of Crime

 
Reporting the Truth

 
Avoiding Bias

 
Avoiding Harm

 
Serving the Public

 
Maintaining Trust

 
Manipulation

 
 
Part II: The Application of Ethical Theories to The Criminal Justice System
 
Chapter 12: Duty and Principle
Hypothetical and Categorical Imperatives

 
Conflicting Duties

 
Applying Deontological Theory

 
 
Chapter 13: Considering the Consequences
Pleasure and Happiness

 
Act Consequentialism

 
Rule Consequentialism

 
Public Policy and Utilitarianism

 
Arguments Criticizing Utilitarianism

 
Applying Utilitarian Theory

 
 
Chapter 14: The Importance of Character
Aristotle Virtues

 
Aristotle and Happiness

 
The Golden Mean

 
Practical Wisdom

 
What’s Wrong With Virtue?

 
Applying Virtue Theory

 
 
Chapter 15: Egoism, Pleasure, and Indifference
Stoicism

 
Hedonism

 
Ethical Egoism

 
Applying the Theory of Ethical Egoism

 
 
Chapter 16: A Sense of Justice
Application of the Principles

 
Justice as Fairness

 
Moral Development

 
Applying Rawlsian Theory

 
 
Chapter 17: Caring for Others
Kohlberg and Gilligan

 
A Theory of Moral Development

 
“In a Different Voice”: Carol Gilligan

 
Gender and the Ethic of Care

 
The Ethic of Care and Justice

 
The Ethic of Care and Policing

 
Peacemaking

 
Applying the Ethic of Care

 
 
References
 
Index

I have used this book before and trust it. I like the practical parts, and only then, it gets more philosophical.

Dr Ryan Mychal Getty
Criminology Program, University Of Texas At Dallas
July 22, 2024
Key features

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

  • A new section exploring the controversial issue of the criminalization of immigration—“crimmigration”—illuminates the ethical implications of current policies and encourages classroom discussion and critical analysis of the changes in immigration policy and practice.
  • Updated sections on ethical issues in policing include political action on police use of force, police militarization, body cameras, stop and frisk, and the ethics of using informants.
  • Enhanced discussions of courts reflect the changing technological environment and feature new material on the use of social media for judges.
  • Updated sections on corrections feature current ethical issues, including correctional officer subculture, private probation and the poor, the right to privacy, the treatment of opioid abuse in correctional institutions, and more.
  • New policies are evaluated for ethical issues in relation to mass incarceration, such as the new “Jim Crow,” race and crime control policies, and internet sexual solicitation.
  • New case studies examine real-world ethical issues and illustrate ethical principles in action. Relevant discussions of critical topics include the prosecution of hate crimes against transgender individuals, private prisons, media responses to sexting, and more.
  • Greater overall textual coherence through cross references and subheadings offer more accessibility for students to better identify the focus of the content.
  • Updated statistics and data reflect new research and scholarly thinking in the field.

KEY FEATURES:

  • A unique focus on the interactions of ethics within the criminal justice system in Part I lays out the foundation for students’ understanding of ethical theories and perspectives presented in Part II.
  • Contemporary case studies throughout the book illustrate ethical issues and theories in applied terms.
  • A code of ethics for various roles in the criminal justice system (i.e. police, correctional officers, et al.) is presented to show students expected standards of behavior in various fields.

 



I.    Overall Book Changes

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Table of Contents: (e.g. Reorganization of chapters, chapter deletions, additions, splitting, or combining)

 

 

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II. Chapter-Specific Changes

Please list changes to each element, including textual revision, tables, maps, charts, figures, data, readings, etc, as applicable.

 

Preface:

 

 Textual revision

 

 

Chapter 1:

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Chapter 2: “

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Summary of Changes:

 

New section on ethical policing and drones; updated discussion of the nature of policing; updated description of the institution of policing; updates on police culture; addition to police ethics instruction; new discussion of ethical police leadership. Updates of data on causes of police deaths and on the stress involved in covert policing and to institutional explanations of police corruption. Discussion of recent studies and reports concerning police oversight, and of oversight of policing practice by the U.S. Department of Justice. Updated section on racial profiling.    

 

 

 

Chapter 3:

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Summary of Changes:

 

Updated section on police-related deaths; new extended discussion and review of studies of police body worn cameras; additions to discussion on filming the police; review and update of series of police shootings.  New discussion of police use of no knock warrants.  Updates to discussion of procedural justice and policing and to citizen concern about police brutality and to police anti-bias training.  Updated discussion of sociological explanations of police violence and of proposals to limit police use of violence.  Exploration of new studies of policing persons with mental health challenges

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Chapter 4:

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Summary of Changes

 

Updated statistics on discrimination in the juvenile justice system; additions to section on interactions between police and Black youth ; updates on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion and grant of bail and on discrimination in sentencing; updated data on imprisonment rates and death penalty cases and hate crimes.

 

  

 

 

 

Chapter 5:

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Updates to discussion of prosecutorial discretion to bring charges, to excessive charging and of checks on the discretion of the prosecutor.  Revisions to plea bargaining discussion and to exploration of prosecutorial misconduct. Revisions to discussion of relationship between police and prosecutors and the outcome of prosecutions of police. Additional material on judicial ethics and a judicial code of ethics for the Supreme Court. Additions to section on electing judges including lawyers contributing to judicial election campaigns. 

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Chapter 6:

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Additional discussion of communicative punishments, theory of just deserts including its relationship to parole, and restorative justice. 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7:

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Updated statistics on incarceration numbers and rates and on persons under community supervision; additions to timelines on the explosion of incarceration; new material on shackling pregnant women in prison; updates to data on incarcerated women and to new forms of incarceration.  New material on maximum security prisons and significant additional discussion on solitary confinement; updates to section on private prisons and additional material on disenfranchising inmates.  New section on aging inmates and the law and policy associated with compassionate release.

    

 

 

 

 

Chapter 8:

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Summary of Changes:

 

New material on correctional officer stress and violence in prisons; significant revisions to discussion of use of force in prisons.  New material on sexual violence in prisons including updated statistics; additional discussion of transgender prisoners; revised case studies and new material on prison oversight.  Updates to section on probation and parole including statistics and to section on sentence of life without parole

 

 

 

Chapter 9:

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