Answer To: Topic:“Often, professionals in the criminal justice system act unethically.” Critically analyse this...
Taruna answered on Aug 22 2021
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Ethical and Unethical Dimension of Criminal Justice System: A Review of Lawyers’ Liabilities
Introduction
Criminal justice system is one of the major pillars over which, human civilization is constituted (Rowe, 2011). In fact, when it comes to the practical grounds, legal observations of any act done by the authorities involved in criminal justice system—law enforcement officers, lawyers or correctional officers—are often criticized to have biased approach. In a rapidly changing world where legal rules and their applications are now known at far and wide scale among people, these questions are likely possible about the ‘ethics’ of the whole system; people tend to raise questions over thee working patterns of these professionals and conclude that most often, legal professionals do not observe ethical principles in their working (Ethics in Criminal Justice System, 2015). Their acts are driven from any kind of bias, prejudice or their self perceptions about the system instead of having complete knowledge of the system that rules out the possibilities of the personal actions preferred over sanity of justice.
An Overview of Ethics and its Application in Criminal Justice System
At first, it is significant to note here that ethics, in its simplest form to be understood by common people, is to judge between what is right and wrong and then, act sensibly over the right options. Thus, ethical ways of acting simply imply the personal instincts of the person along with professional liabilities (Ben, 2013). Practical situations, at times, are driven from real life conditions in which, theoretical observations are hardly applicable i.e. professionals are placed under ethical dilemma where they have to act against the set principles of work. The same is applicable in the context of law; lawyers, the most significant contributories of establishing finest legal system, have such obligations to law and to the common people as well. However, their actions remain biased and driven from self interests instead of showcasing their ability to maintain law and order in society (Macfarlane, 2009). It is also the case that the lawyer has divided loyalties - owing a duty to the court while at the same time owing a duty to the client. On occasions, these duties will be in conflict. In these cases, the lawyer is obliged to fulfill his or her obligations to the court. This is not generally understood by clients, or by some lawyers who carry the notion of the duty to the client too far and engage in practices that are unethical and that go to defeat the interests of justice (Macfarlane, 2009).
Additionally, lawyers carry out the responsibility to connect common people with the overall criminal justice system (Whitehead, 2016). Therefore, ethical liabilities placed on them are bigger than the law enforcement officers or correctional officers. They have to take justifiable stances in courts so that the belief in the criminal justice system of common people can be enhanced (Whitehead, 2016). They are the only kind of intellectual professionals with whom, the question of morality and ethics is greater than any other authority involved in the whole process. It also implies that the dimensions of ethical principles become bigger for them to observe than any other professional involved in the system. This liability to observe ethics in professional behavior also becomes sensitive in the modern context; with the rise of digital era, people have become keen to know more about law even if they are not concerned to any such cases (Whitehead, 2016). In other words, people now tend to know their legal rights which were not a trending thing in the past. Digital resources make legal information about any popular case available for them to study and thus, they appear as ‘prepared’ before any lawyer about case references. Thus, the legal liabilities of lawyers are seen as challenging, if they are analyzed in the light of ethical principles (Whitehead, 2016).
Ethical Practices and Violation of Ideal Justice System
Lawyers stand as the main body of legal governance; they bridge the gaps between the national justice system and the common people (Doraisamy, 2019). A theoretical perception about the profession of lawyers implies that they are expected to...