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Exploring Academic Discourse on Criminal Justice Ethics: Where Are We?

NCJ Number
223201
Journal
Journal of Crime and Justice Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Dated: 2008 Pages: 81-111
Author(s)
Gayle M. Rhineberger-Dunn; Megan C. Mullins
Date Published
2008
Length
31 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this paper is to understand the current state of discourse on ethics in the disciplines of criminal justice and criminology, in terms of pedagogy (science of teaching), verbal dialogue, and scholarly activities.
Abstract
The results of this paper show that while American Society of Criminology (ASC) members are engaged in some dialogue with colleagues and students about criminal justice ethics, they are much less involved in directly teaching and conducting scholarly activities focused on ethics. Very few respondents have experience teaching an ethics-specific criminal justice course. The most frequent format for criminal justice ethics discourse is through teaching by inclusion of ethics material within other courses. Regardless of the discipline in which it is specifically applied, ethics generally refers to the study of what is right and wrong behavior, policies, or practices. Applied to the criminal justice discipline, ethics can be defined as ethical issues related to both broad social and legal policies as well as ethical dilemmas specific to particular criminal justice professions. The purpose of this research was to explore the extent of academic discourse on ethics. Specifically, it explored whether or not academic faculty were teaching about criminal justice ethics, conducting scholarly activities related to ethics, and talking about ethics. Tables, notes, references