William Westley
Answer the following questions:
Some occupations develop their own code of ethics. When any occupation develops a code of ethics it is a hint that people in that occupation do things which other people may regard as immoral. There are military codes and even separate military justice systems because people in the military kill other people in various ways. Ordinarily it is considered wrong to kill people. Lawyers develop their own code of ethics because they do things which other people may regard as immoral, such as, defending guilty persons, not revealing when they know that someone is really guilty of a crime, engaging in actions which may be legal but would be considered unjust by others, etc. Doctors have a code of ethics because they also do things which other people may regard as immoral, such as, lying to patients who are dying, performing abortions, not being willing to testify about the medical malpractice of other doctors, etc.
Westley seems to have stumbled onto the idea that police also develop their own code of morality. He did not refer to any official code of ethics subscribed to by police, although such codes do exist. Instead he used his own observations and interviews to construct the code of ethics followed by the police officers in his study.
Discuss the police code of ethics as described by Westley. Take into account these questions:
1. Did the police officers recognize that they had a code of ethics separate from the morality of other people?
2. Did all of the police officers agree to this code of ethics?
3. Did they expect other people to agree with their code of ethics?
4. Did officers freely accept this code of ethics or did they accept it under compulsion?
5. Why was so much stress put on secrecy?
6. Did their code of ethics enable the police officers to really see themselves as good people?
7. Why were there such strong reactions to little acts of kindness to other people?
8. Did their code of morality enable these police officers to be morally certain about their actions or did it create moral confusion in their minds?
9. What did Westley mean by legitimations? Did he think that the various legitimations were valid?
10. According to Westley, where and why did these police officers enforce the law?
All papers must be formatted in the APA citation method. Students will use the American Psychological Association (APA) style for written assignments, as appropriate. APA guidelines can be found on the John Jay College Library website by accessing this link:
http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/research/apastyle_spring_2012.pdf
All papers must be formatted in Times New Roman, 12 font, double line spacing, justified. Please answer these questions in the form of an essay (do not present them in numbered format).
Grade: 5%
