Criminal Justice Codes Of Ethics

Criminal Justice Codes of Ethics

Christine Jones

[Name of the Institution]

Criminal Justice Code of Ethics

Organizational culture can be defined as the combination of different emotions, behavior, and values of the workforce that molds up the psychological and social atmosphere of the firm (O'Neill et al., 2016). It has a significant influence over personnel decisions as shown in the case as well. Here the organizational culture in the police department depicted negligence and carelessness where the employees involved in breaking the rules were set free and not punished. Consequently, it influenced the decision-making of higher officials in the police department to cover up the accident done by a deputy chief quickly. This consequence was expected in such an organizational culture where the bureaucracy is not respected.

Being an investigator, the sole option available to me in this regard is to make deputy chief a sign of lesson for everyone in the department. His punishment can be a step towards enforcement of the law within the department and make everyone realize that there is a price to pay if anyone commits a crime. The case of deputy chief would also open up several other cases that were closed on the pressure of influential officers who wanted to protect their uniformed brothers. This would not only bring the actual criminals under the radar of the law but would also enforce punishment for the supporters of those criminals.

However, this investigation would not be as easy as it seems to be. When an organizational culture has foundations of unethical acts and laxness, it is expected that the culprits would retaliate to such an investigation being carried out and that too with important methods of blackmailing and even planning a murder of the investigator. However, the inquiry should not stop as once the deputy chief is punished, it will prevail fear among other culprits as well of being evicted from the department.

While the deputy chief is expected to be found guilty along with his influential supporting personnel, I would morally and ethically make a consideration which is that it is a crime which should be punished and hated, not the criminal. The interrogation and punishment of deputy chief will be kept confidential and would not be disclosed to anyone. This would protect the deputy officer from facing a public outrage which would have an exaggeration as the international law ethically does not allow “tortured punishments” of criminals in any form (Scharf, 2017).

If influential officers and municipal authorities will back the deputy officer's crime, the renowned criminal justice organizations should engage themselves in such cases to ensure the rule of law. They should give punishment rulings not only for the major crimes but also for the minor crimes – the root cause leading towards the significant misconduct. Moreover, higher officials should be replaced with the most credible police officers who are known to have good morals and experience of working ethically. Accountability policies getting executed under honest and ethical leadership will ensure that the staff avoids to involve themselves in malpractices. This will happen because of the fear of being accountable to honest leaders who will make sure that no crime gets away from their sight unless it gets investigated properly with culprits getting deserved punishment.

The current corrupt culture has built up the blue walls of silence where nobody will bother to question the higher authority as to why they are not punishing the deputy officer. However, I will whistle-blow to break these blue walls of silence; knowing that I am being safeguarded by Whistleblower Protection Act that was brought into the limelight in 1989 (Peffer et al., 2015). Under this act, whistle-blowers are entitled to receive duly compensation and life security provided by government authorities if they suffer redundancy or life threats. This encourages more and more people to expose malpractices within their organizations, knowing that the state is behind them to enforce the rule of law.

References

O'Neill, J. W., Beauvais, L. L., & Scholl, R. W. (2016). The use of organizational culture and structure to guide strategic behavior: An information processing perspective. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 2(2), 816.

Peffer, S. L., Bocheko, A., Del Valle, R. E., Osmani, A., Peyton, S., & Roman, E. (2015). Whistle where you work? The ineffectiveness of the Federal Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 and the promise of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 35(1), 70-81.

Scharf, M. P. (2017). The amnesty exception to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. In The International Criminal Court (pp. 437-457). Routledge.