Cyndi Banks' Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Reaction Paper

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Cyndi Banks' Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice

No serious-minded individual over the age of twelve actually thinks that justice and ethical issues involved in criminality are purely black-and-white or clear-cut issues of good and bad. The first chapters of Cyndi Banks' (2008) Criminal Justice Ethics, however, make it clear that the issues of right and wrong in the criminal justice system are far more complex, specific, and subtle than one might have guessed, even when grand and overarching principles serve as the ultimate source for the ethical considerations in a criminal justice case. Especially when supplemented by additional research regarding the workings of the criminal justice system and the application of ethics in cranial justice decisions and policies, the first chapters of this book have a profound effect in shaping an awareness of such considerations.

The Importance of Ethics

One of the most profound impacts the first chapter of Banks' (2008) book has on the reader is in breaking down the different ways of understanding ethics, some of which are at least in part mutually exclusive. Ethical absolutism doesn't take into account differences in cultural values or perspectives, and yet it is easy to see that there are significant differences in perspective and what is considered acceptable, wrong, or even criminal from society to society and even within sub-cultures in a given society (Banks, 2008). Determining what "fair" or "just" is from an ethical perspective is not at all a simple task.

At the same time, public policy in a democratic society is something that is formed ostensibly as the result of ethical considerations and determinations made by the public (typically through their elected representatives), and so one could also argue that imposing the rules of criminal justice on a given population when that population has created those rules is within ethical bounds (Banks, 2008, p. 18). This leads to the problem of unethical laws, of course, and the problem of a majority imposing its unethical will on a minority simply because they have the capability through the creation of laws, but typically this resolves potential ethical issues in the criminal justice system for those confronted with the immediate task of handling transgressions, it would seem.

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More systemic problems in society that impact the criminal justice system, while certainly worthy of consideration and of solutions, cannot really be effectively approached from a criminal justice perspective regardless of ethical stance.

Ethics and the Police

With the eye-opening considerations introduced in the first chapter, it as hardly a surprise that Banks' (2008) second chapter also contained many considerations and commentaries that were cause for ample reflection. That there could even be something like a "nature of policing" is not something that many would consider in a conscience and explicit manner, much less would many examine the nature of policing and what it means about a society that policing should have to exist (Banks, 2008, p. 24-6). Applying discretion and the amount of personal ethical decision-making involved in policing reopens issues initially addressed in the first chapter with new complicating factors, as well (Banks, 2008, pp. 29-34).

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