Policy Making and Ethical Decision Making in Criminal Justice - Research Paper Example

Policy Making and Ethical Decision Making in Criminal Justice The policymaking in criminal justice is a process involves predicting certain future conditions assuming an uninterrupted flow of events, projecting the future implications of a particular course of action, identifying a preferred outcome from a set of available choices, generating a program or policy that will result in the preferred outcome, and creating an adequate monitoring system (THE INTERACTION BETWEEN ETHICS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, 2008, p.219) Policy making in criminal justice is a difficult task because of the serious implications involved in it. The policy makers need to consider so many parameters like ethical, legal, social, cultural, economical, political etc before finalizing and implementing a policy in the society. Policy making in criminal justice was an easy task during ancient times as a King or a dynasty had the sole power in policy making at that time. Policy making is an easy task even now, in countries where dictatorship, dynasty or communism prevails. For example, in China or Saudi Arabia, policy makers do not have many worries in making and implementing criminal justice policies in their countries or societies. On the other hand, it is difficult for a democratic administration like that in India or America to implement criminal justice policies at their own will. In America, criminal justice policies can be implemented in the country only after a debate in the Congress. This paper briefly analyses the past/historical information, present day implications, future trends, societal impact and plausible solutions to reduce/eliminate moral dilemma in criminal justice policy making. Policy making in Criminal Justice “When money is no object, legislators can make policy based primarily on principle. Over the past three decades, this is precisely what has happened in the arena of criminal justice policy making”. Criminal justice system has not faced many threats in the past and hence policy making and implementation was not much difficult. But the present world is facing threats from all corners so that expensive and advanced policies are required to counter it. Policy making in criminal justice is normally done based on three perspectives; ideological, empirical and ethical. But, these perspectives were normally kept on paper alone, as the law enforcers, like the police, violate these policies regularly because of the increased threats. “The development of policies may have more to do with the belief systems than the empirical reality” (Pollock, 2008, p.115). For example, body scanning is implemented in most of the American airports in order to detect any weapons kept by the passengers secretly. But, body scanning is conducted only on people from a particular religion which is against the norms of the ethical principles of criminal justice system. It is a fact that America is facing threats from Muslim fundamentalists. At the same time, labelling of all Muslims as terrorists or suspected ones is not suitable to the true spirit of the ethical values of criminal justice system. Criminal justice polices should be aimed at prevention of crime rather than provoking the sentiments of any religion. Morality policies are policies that are viewed and constructed by the media, politicians, and sections of the public as involving moral and ethical issues. In formulating criminal justice policy on issues of morality, policy makers should act ethically, undertake formal policy analysis, and avoid promoting ad hoc, arbitrary, and irrational policy solutions (THE INTERACTION BETWEEN ETHICS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, 2008, p.221) Ethical policy making in criminal justice should focus on what is right and wrong or good or bad. All the people, irrespective of their cast, culture or religion, should be considered equally while making criminal justice policies. Policies in criminal justice can be formal and informal. Formal policies are formulated by the executive and the legislative branches of the government whereas the informal policies are formulated by the law enforcement agencies like the police. Informal policies often manipulated, misinterpreted or misused by the law enforcement agencies. The body scanning of suspected people at the American airports is an informal policy formulated and misused by the airport authorities. Today, governments in America and other western countries, started to adopt a managerial approach towards policy making in criminal justice system. The development of risk based interventions, increased participation of private sector in criminal justice system etc are examples of changes happening in policy making of criminal justice system all over the world. It is difficult to implement universal codes in criminal justice policy making because of the differences in risk faced by different countries. For example, India and America are countries which face threats from external sources. On the other hand, Sri Lanka is a country which faces threats, mainly from internal sources. In other words, it is difficult for Sri Lanka to make criminal justice policies, following the path of either India or America. They need to develop policies suitable to counter the internal threats. Criminal justice policy making is not going to be an easy task in future also. Different dimensions attached to the criminal activities made, the policy making more complex. For example, the execution of Saddam, war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan etc has raised many concerns about the moral codes of criminal justice system. Capital punishment is another controversial subject in America in which policy makers have different opinions about taking the life of another person. Muslim world already accused America for keeping double standards while dealing with crimes committed by Muslims and others. In their opinion, America is keeping blind eye towards the massacre committed by Israel at Palestine whereas they are conducting war on terror in Muslim countries alone. In short, the changing dimensions of criminal activities made ethical policy making in criminal justice system, extremely difficult. Conclusions Ethical or moral policy making in criminal justice system is extremely difficult now compared to that in early years. It is going to be even more difficult in future because of the different dimensions attached to criminal activities taking place in America and all over the world. References 1. Steen, S. and Bandy, R. , 2005. When the Policy Becomes the Problem: Criminal Justice Policy in the New Millennium. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Royal York, Toronto. Retrieved from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p32137_index.html 2. Pollock, J.M. (2008). Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice. Cengage Learning, 2008 3. THE INTERACTION BETWEEN ETHICS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: The Ethics of Criminal Justice Policy Making. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/23181_Chapter_7.pdf Read More