Ethics in criminal justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethics in criminal justice - Essay Example The selective enforcement of laws is only rarely an outcome of law enforcement corruption.. An overview of history evidences that during periods when the perpetrators of a particular type of crime occupy a position of singular importance, there is a tendency to `look the other way.’ This was the case during the 1920s with Prohibition, to name but one example. Selective enforcement as determined by the relative power of the perpetrators is immoral and ethically indefensible. More often than not, the selective enforcement of laws is predominantly, a consequence of volume of crime versus the resources at the possession of law enforcement forces. In the not uncommon periods where violent crime rates supersede non-violent crime rates, law enforcement tends to direct its attention to the latter and overlook victimless crimes within the context of the former. The implication here is that law enforcement may overlook crimes of possession or substance abuse consequent to the imperatives of focusing resources on the combating of the drug trade itself. Likewise, law enforcement is unlikely to enforce laws pertaining to petty shoplifting when resources are better expended in the combating of aggravated assault, grand larceny and armed robbery. The implication here is that the selective enforcement of law is a consequence of priorities. Even while conceding to the fact that absolute ethics dictates the uniform implementation of all operational laws at all times, law enforcement’s failure to do so is not indicative of a breakdown of ethics. In fact, given the motivations for law enforcement’s selective implementation of laws, their doing so may be categorized as an exercise of utilitarian ethics. In accordance with utilitarian ethical systems, both the reasons which motivated an action and the consequences of the said action determine