Ethical Decision Making in Criminal Justice Assignment

Ethical Decision Making in Criminal Justice - Assignment Example This clearly illustrates how far ethics encroach into personal desires. To start with, it is unethical to lie in the questionnaire. However, in the event that the prospective police officer lies and does not get discovered, there still will be implications on the officer’s operations. One of the ways in which this event would affect the police officer’s operation is through the initiation of a chain of events geared at covering up the past. The police officer will always be afraid that one day the truth may be discovered leading to a tougher consequence; maybe get dismissed and a jail term on top of it all. This greatly impedes on the police officer’s execution of duties due to the fear of getting discovered as well as a guilty conscience(Prenzler, 2009).   Telling the truth would have been the ethical thing to do for the police officer. This would have been the first step towards acceptance of past mistakes and indicating the will to forge ahead with no burden at all. Telling the truth serves as an indicator of how committed he is to upholding ethics in the new workplace. By telling the truth, the police officer will be free of any guilt and will also earn more credibility from the officers to whom he is required to report. This implies that the officer has more to gain than lose by telling the truth, which would in turn may be used as a basis to clear his name from the past mess. The decision must be based on personal discretion and possible results of the due process (Pollock, 2012). It would make no sense to reveal details of one’s involvement in a past mischief and leave the details of those that were party to it. It is obvious that there are agencies that will follow up the revealed details to confirm their validity and truthfulness. This means that the friend’s involvement will be discovered. In the event that, the friend’s details were left out, it would appear