Moral relativism and moral absolutism can be analyzed conceptually in terms of the fact-value dichotomy and a specific sense of the term relativism. The assumption is that the dynamics of the criminal justice ethics course is better understood within the framework that questions what the nature of human action is and its relation to belief and knowledge. The issues, problems, arguments, and distinctions surrounding the controversy between absolutism and relativism are correlative in a fundamental way with the issue of determinism and free will. A major goal in teaching the applied course in criminal justice ethics is identifying and clarifying as many demands, duties, and values as the students as moral agents can discern. (Author abstract modified)