Leadership Skills for Criminal Justice Professionals Leadership is vitally important in any field, whether it is in the public or private sector; but leadership is especially important for professionals in the criminal justice field since the welfare and safety of the public is at stake. And when ethical values are not adhered to in the criminal justice system it creates a gap in quality service for citizens, and moreover a lack of virtue and ethics presents a very negative and potentially embarrassing scandal for public servants. This paper discusses leadership skills and ethical considerations vis-a-vis the criminal justice system.

Leadership Skills

In the book by Michael Carpenter and Roger Fulton (A Practical Career Guide for Criminal Justice Professionals) offers practical advice to those who would serve the community in a criminal justice capacity. Being a leader entails a great deal more than being "the boss," Carpenter explains (Carpenter, et al., 2007, p. 52). It entails leading by example, whether the person is a probation officer, a sergeant in the police force, or someone just hired in the district attorney's office.

Carpenter asserts that leadership is "earned by the consensus of your peers or bosses," and when people feel comfortable around you, they will follow the directions you offer. They will follow because "your character, your integrity, your work ethic, your decision-making abilities" and "trustworthiness" is part of how people see you. These character traits, Carpenter insists, are why people will follow a leader. The positive traits typically seen in a leader include: a) use of common sense; b) takes command of any situation; c) is honest and has integrity; d) is fair; e) always...

Other leader characteristics include personal energy, loyalty, tact, and humility (Carpenter, 55).
Ethics and Virtue in Criminal Justice Leadership

Author Sam Souryal quotes from a James Madison writing in the 51st Federalist Paper: "If men were angels no government would be necessary, [and] if angels were to govern men neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary" (Souryal, 2010, p. 205). But of course men are not angels and angels do not govern men -- other men and women do the governing and provide the leadership -- and indeed though men are mere mortals, they are expected to be ethical. Ethical management, Souryal writes (206) means more than just "looking good"; it entails "being good" professionals.

And to achieve the "being good" part of professionalism a leader must have two "moral virtues," Souryal explains (206): those two are "integrated thinking and moral agility." The integrated thinking part of virtue is having a talent for wisdom, based on "reasoning and deductive logic" and those qualities must be totally independent from bias (Souryal, 206). In order to transcend immediate issues and questions, a leader with ethical integrity must be able to achieve a "higher level" of thinking, according to Souryal.

As for moral agility, this entails…