A Deep Dive into Ethical Discussions in Introductory Criminal Justice Textbooks

• In Event: Policing and Community Security

Abstract

Ethical discretion in the actions of criminal justice officials, particularly law enforcement, has become prominent in recent public discourse. A concern is an understanding of how ethics shape and influence the decision-making and behaviors of all actors throughout the criminal justice system. One way to examine this relationship is by focusing on the educational curricula in undergraduate criminal justice programs at colleges and universities; of interest is the level of exposure to ethical concepts students in these criminal justice degree programs receive. This research is a content analysis of the presentation of ethics in introductory criminal justice and criminology textbooks. The findings provide an accounting of both the quantity and the substantive degree of written devotion to ethics for topics in policing, the courts, and corrections. Additional findings illustrate variations in amounts of text on ethics devoted to these three components of the criminal justice system. The importance of exposing students in criminal justice programs to the concept of ethics is discussed whereby these students are likely to be criminal justice professionals in the future. This examination of ethics in introductory textbooks is timely given recent high publicity events that spotlight ethical, or not, actions by criminal justice professionals.

Authors

• Cory Lepage, California State University, East Bay

• Kate Luther, Pacific Lutheran University