Ethics and Criminal Justice

Catalog description

This course will address ethical issues in the criminal justice system at both the theoretical and applied levels. Typical theoretical issues addressed might include the following: the relationship between law and morality; theories of punishment; conditions for the moral and/or legal responsibility of individuals; notions of procedural justice. Typical applied ethics issues might include the following: search and seizure rules; the insanity defense and the "guilty but mentally ill" verdict; plea bargaining; capital punishment; mandatory sentencing; civil disobedience; limits on the use of deadly force.