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: limits on the police use of deception and of deadly force; search and seizure rules; plea bargaining; mitigation and excuse defenses (e.g. insanity); mandatory sentencing, especially life without parole; capital punishment.