CHAPTER 4:

Becoming
an Ethical
Professional

Lecture Slides prepared by Cheryn Rowell

 Declining Morality?

1. We have eliminated many of the opportunities for

the teaching of morals.
2. The community is not a cohesive force any longer.
3. The authority of religion is not as pervasive as it
once was.
4. The family is weakening as a force of socialization.
5. Educators have abdicated their responsibility for
moral instruction in favor of scientific neutrality.
 How Does One Become
a Good Person?
Deterministic Free Will/Agency
 Biology
 Religion
 Psychology
 Sociology  Philosophy
 Criminology

Fields of study seek to answer this question

with free will acknowledged to greater or
lesser degrees.
Theories of Moral Development
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Behavior depends on an individual’s
biological predispositions.

LEARNING THEORIES
Behavior depends on the rewards an
individual has received.

DEVELOPMEMTAL THEORIES
Behavior depends on an individual’s
intellectual and emotional stage of development,
which in turn depends on their environment.
 Biological Theories

Recent research suggests individuals

may be predisposed to certain types of
behavior due to the biology of their brains.
Frontal lobe damage
May result in increased
impulsiveness,
decreased attention
span, difficulty in
logical reasoning and
following instructions,
and antisocial behavior.
Cortical Limbic Network
 Structured event knowledge
 Social perceptual and functional
features
 Central motive and emotional states

Disruptions in the network can limit the

ability to respond to ethical dilemmas.
Sex Differences
Inherited Trait
 Men’s brains function
differently than women’s.
 Statistically, men are more
likely to be antisocial, to
have serious childhood
conduct disorders, and to
commit serious offenses.
 Socio-biology
 Certain traits support the survival of the species
 Moral “senses”: sympathy, fairness, self-control,
and duty
 Individual inheritance or group selection
(evolution)
 Morality seems to lie in the inferior parietal lobe
(rationality) but also in the “emotion” center of the
brain (amygdala)
 Learning Theories
Premise: All human behavior is learned;
therefore, ethics is a function of learning
rather than reasoning.

Modeling Reinforcement
 Imitating the behavior  A behavior that is rewarded
of others will be repeated
 Parents and other adults  After enough reinforcement,
provide role models for the behavior becomes
 children through their  permanent
behavior  The individual develops
values consistent with the
 Behavior (cognitive
 dissonance)

 Bandura: “Selective Disengagement”
or Moral Restructuring
Moral justification: Appeal to a higher end (e.g., terrorists who are
fighting for a cause).
Euphemistic labeling: Downplaying the seriousness of actions (e.g.,
“collateral damage”).
Advantageous comparison: Act isn’t as bad as some others (e.g.,
“What was done at Abu Ghraib wasn’t as bad as what the insurgents
did who cut off the heads of civilian contractors.”).
Displacement of responsibility: Denies culpability (e.g., “I was only
following orders.”)
Diffusion of responsibility: Mob actions
Distortion of the consequences: Misidentifying the consequences of
one’s actions (e.g., CEO who gives the order to pollute merely
requests that the problem be “taken care of”).
Dehumanization: Process to strip the victim of any qualities of
similarity that may create sympathy (e.g., the use of terms such as
gooks, slant-eyes, pigs, wetbacks).
 Developmental Theories
Premise: Moral development, like physical
growth, occurs in stages.

1. They involve qualitative differences in modes of

thinking, as opposed to quantitative differences.
2. Each stage forms a structured whole; cognitive
development and moral growth are integrated.
3. Stages form an invariant sequence; no one
bypasses any stage, and not all people develop to
the higher stages.
4. Stages are hierarchical integrations.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Pre-Conventional Level
 Approach to moral issues motivated purely by
personal interests.

 Stage 1: Punishment/Obedience Orientation

 Stage 2: Instrument/Relativity Orientation

Conventional Level
 Approach to moral issues motivated by
socialization.

 Stage 3: Interpersonal Concordance

Orientation.

 Stage 4: Law-and-Order Orientation.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Post-Conventional Level
• Approach to moral issues motivated by desire to
discover universal good beyond own self or own
society.

• Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation

• Stage 6: Universal Ethical Orientation

Post-Post-Conventional Level
• Approach to moral issues moves beyond the
human to a cosmic or religious level of
awareness. Kohlberg only speculated that this
stage might exist.

• Stage 7: Transcendental Orientation

 Criticisms of Moral
Development Theory
 Justice/Western Bias: Stages center too much on the concept of justice,
ignoring other aspects of morality.

 Value Bias: Justice, rules, and rights are emphasized as higher values than
caring and relationships.

 Deontological Bias: The higher stages are based on deontological assumptions

about universal ethical principles.

 Rationality Bias: Emphasizes reason in moral decisions while ignoring

emotional factors.

 Gender Bias: Emphasizes traditionally “male” values and virtues.

 Belief = Action?: Difficult to link reasoning levels with moral action in

particular situations.
 Factors Necessary for Moral Growth
 Encouragement to examine situations from other points of view

 Exposure to individuals whose thinking is a stage higher than one’s

own

 Exposure to conflicts in moral reasoning that challenge one’s present

stage

 Engagement in logical thinking, such as reasoned argument and

consideration of alternatives

 Responsibility for making moral decisions and acting on them

 Participation in creating and maintaining a just community

 Teaching Ethics (Sherman)
 Stimulate the "moral imagination" by posing difficult moral
dilemmas.

 Encourage the recognition of ethical issues beyond immediate goals.

 Help to develop analytical skills and the tools of ethical analysis.

 Elicit a sense of moral obligation and personal responsibility.

 Explore the morality of coercion, which is intrinsic to criminal justice.

 Help students recognize the difference between technical and moral

competence.

 Address the full range of moral issues in criminology and criminal

justice.
Corruption Continuum
 Indifference towards integrity.

 Ignoring obvious ethical issues.

 Creating a fear and hypocrisy dominated

culture.

 Maintaining a survival of the fittest

environment by individual employees.
 Gardner’s Cognitive Capacities
 The “disciplined mind”—the ability to focus and learn a
field of study.
 The “synthesizing mind”—the ability to integrate diverse
ideas into a coherent whole.
 The “creating mind”—the ability to recognize and solve
problems.
 The “respectful mind”—the ability to form and maintain
good relationships with other people.
 The “ethical mind”—the ability to fulfil one’s
responsibilities as a citizen and to identify with fellow
humans.
 How Leaders Can Foster Ethics (Metz)
1. Establish realistic goals and objectives.
2. Provide ethical leadership (set a moral tone by
actions).
3. Establish formal written codes of ethics.
4. Provide a whistle blowing mechanism.
5. Discipline violators of ethical standards.
6. Train all personnel in ethics.
 Ethical Leadership
 Strong leadership involves caring and
commitment to the organization.

 Idealistic realism: the ability of good leaders to

acknowledge and understand social realities
while avoiding the trap of cynicism.

 Ethical leaders possess vision and moral

responsibility and engage in enlightened
reasoning.
 Thinking Point
The police chief in Bell, California is under investigation
for accepting a salary of $457,000 per year. Chief Randy
Adam’s salary is double that of LAPD’s police chief
Charlie Beck. The city of 40,000 consist of blue collar
workers and has a higher than average poverty rate.

Is Chief Adams displaying ethical leadership?

Why or why not?
Does accepting the salary automatically make him an
unethical leader?
 Ethical Choices for
Criminal Justice Professionals
• Friendship vs. institutional
(integrity/professionalism)

• Client (offender) needs vs. bureaucratic efficiency

and institutional goals.

• Personal goals or biases vs. fair and impartial

treatment of the public and the clients served.

The inappropriate use of discretion occurs when the

professional uses unethical criteria to resolve decisions.
Avoiding Cynicism and Burnout

1. First, adopt realistic goals

before entering the
profession.
2. Second, find and nurture a
network of mentors and
colleagues that promotes
ethical values.
3. Third, seek self-fulfillment
and personal enrichment.