Criminal Justice Issue as a Police Detective,

Criminal Justice Issue

As a police detective, I handle the majority of homicide investigations with my partner, Officer X (X). We are investigating the brutal beating, rape and assault of a woman in our community who is now in a coma. Earlier that evening, officers responded to a complaint that a gang of young men were assaulting residents and two members of the gang, 14 years of age, were arrested. X interviewed both in separate rooms. We found that they had previous records for robbery and assault. X reports that both confessed and the case is closed. However, the case has reached national prominence due to the circumstances. A conviction will vindicate the police, but there are proprietary questions of Constitutional Rights, Policy, and ethics that are bothering me and forcing an ethical decision.

Major Ethical and Legal Dilemmas:

The youths were 14, minors, and entitled to have parents or guardians present during questioning. This was not done and no significant effort was made to contact them.

Police policy mandates that interviews are videotaped, this was not done.

We are unsure if the youths were read their rights, or if undue coercion, force, or other issues were used to get a confession.

While being convinced of the youth's guilt, X crossed the line to tie-up a quick conviction.

I believe that however unpopular this decision might be, it is the legal and ethical responsibility that I have as a legal professional to report my concerns to my supervisor.

In my analysis of the events, I turn to two sets of moral and ethical reasoning to help make my decision to meet with the supervisor: virtue ethics and utilitarianism. Philosophically utilitarianism tells us that it is the end result of an action that is important, and the action that involves the most benefit to the most people, the appropriate action. When we think about society, we think about what is best for the many, and/or does the means to the end matter more than the end results. Using utilitarianism, the most ethical thing anyone, individual or society, can do is an action that, when completed, will maximize the happiness of the largest number of individuals, or of society or an organization. Actions have quantitative outcomes and the ethical choices that lead to the "greatest good for the greatest number" are the appropriate decisions, even if that means subsuming the rights of certain individuals (Sandel, 2010).

Virtue ethics is a way to approach ethical issues that focuses on the character of the moral agent, as opposed to just the rules. Some view this as contrasting consequentialism which says that the final action supports the moral value of the decision. Virtue ethics considers that the reality of the decision holds the basic premise of the overall organization. Right actions follow from being moral and ethical about a situation. Being moral as an individual then, we already "know" what the right action is in a given situation. Virtue ethics define that best in human characteristics that help us live in society in a positive manner (Deverett, 2002).