Chapter 12: Finding Ethical People from an Unethical Society
Chapter 12: Finding Ethical People from an Unethical Society
Abstract
This Chapter provides readers a look at Noble Cause Corruption and how it may facilitate itself among police officers. This section also provides reprinted portions of the author’s research on pre-employment testing of police candidates. The section illustrates that police agencies that use the processes provided herein generally have a good fit employee that is generally ethically fit for the position. Readers should identify and evaluate gaps from pre-employment testing to the systemic issues that may lead to a lapse in ethical judgement. This material albeit subscribes to criminal justice members, it may be applicable to other disciplines.
Introduction
Readers are advised that for this material to make sense to them, it is essential that they do not park their brains at the door! Simply put, bring forth knowledge obtained from previously engaged disciplines of Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Criminology, and History to name a few. There is no one single silver bullet that provides a simple answer to social issues. Simply put the etiology of ethics is tangential at best.
The awesome responsibility of local, state and federal governments to provide safe environments for its citizens is greater than one can imagine, but is often taken for granted and more so often generates a sense of complacency by citizens. No greater responsibility is vested in persons to carry out the function of protection and safety than on the members of the United States Military and the police officers within the near 18,000 police agencies in this country (Reaves, 2011). Generally this task is fused within statutory authority, partially due to the reasonable societies entering into the social contract theory. The social contract theory can be found in the early writings of philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, into the social contract thinker era of Thomas Hobbes (1651), John Locke (1689), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762), and within the fabric of our justice system (Albanese, 2012; Pollack, 2010).
The Social Contract theory institutes a suitable affiliation between members of society and their government. Social contract argues that individuals willingly relinquish certain freedoms and unite into political societies, abiding by common rules, and accepting the corresponding duties of providing protection from one another and other types of harm. The social contract theory provides that law and political order are the creation of man and contrived for the purpose of public tranquility administered by government (Albanese, 2012; Pollack, 2010).
The United States is a country that is governed by the “Rule of Law.” Government in the U.S. gains its statutory authority through the U.S. Constitution, which further organizes and structures societies into state governments with State Constitutions, which is further subdivided into smaller units of governmental municipalities with local code