Ethics in Criminal Justice - Essay Example

Type the document ABC Suicide by cop The moral possibility of ‘suicide by cop’ is a situation which may be argued as an ethical problem by utilitarian approach. According to the utilitarian approach to ethics, cops should think rationally before shooting individuals dead (Gandjour, 2007). The incidents of suicide by cops are a clear case of ethical failure where cops have murdered people instead of logically handling the problem. A police officer should in fact determine the logical possibilities of whether a person is committing a certain act or behavior in order to get killed.

The officer should then try to reason with the individuals before pulling the trigger and should not just assume the worst and commit an extreme act of killing a person. Abusive speed trapsThis is an approach where the concept of relativity in ethics needs to be considered. Given the current situation, speed traps may be used to garner revenue but everything needs to be done in a limited manner. The police officer in charge should try to find an alternate option to raise funds. Until such a situation is resolved, speed traps may be used to collect revenue but the same must be restricted to at most one or two per day.

This is because it is ethically not permissible to set up speed traps just for raising funds. According to the utilitarianism approach to ethics this is a totally wrong strategy. Hence, a middle path needs to be determined. The informants among usThe character of a protector of ethics to drive and encourage ethical behavior is virtue ethics. On the other hand, utilitarianism focuses on driving the right behaviors. In fact utilitarianism is interested in the outcomes of the actions and does not care about the intentions which motivate these outcomes.

On the other hand, formal ethics is concerned with moral judgments. In this incident, the character should have taken a relative path to ethics as taking the path of virtue ethics has deemed him to be an arch enemy of the police force of an entire nation. To a certain extent, one must abide by the cultures and norms which are prevalent in a certain culture or society. The reasoning behind the statement is in line with the proponents of virtue ethics. FBI spy powers challengedThis is again a scenario of ethical dilemma.

The case details the amount of violations committed by the FBI. This is an abuse of power and hence according to ethics is not permissible. Utilitarianism is concerned with the final results and not with the intentions to commit the act. Hence this concept of ethics will support the approach of not eliminating such powers. However the relativity theory of ethics would support the notion that the FBI should be stripped off its powers as it has lead to several violations. The moral permissibility of continuing such incidents may lead to severe behavioral practices and misuse of powers by the FBI.

They may use unauthorized access to tap calls and emails of people for their personal reasons. Hence, such powers should not be entrusted to the FBI. ReferencesGandjour, A. (2007). Is it rational to pursue utilitarianism?, Journal of the European Ethics Network, 14(2), 139-158.