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JOYCELYN M. POLLOCK (2004) Ethics in Crime and Justice: Dilemmas and Decisions, 4th Ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth ISBN 0 534 56349 X pp. 426, pb.
JAY S. ALBANESE (2006) Professional Ethics in Criminal Justice: Being Ethical When No One is Looking Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon ISBN 0 205 35920 5, pp. 172, pb.
The study of ethics in criminal justice has proliferated in the past 25 years as the public demands a higher level of ethical accountability for those in professional positions. Consequently, including ethics in the criminal justice curriculum is a necessity and, as a result, the number of criminal justice ethics courses, as well as ethics textbook options, has increased. This review seeks to evaluate two seemingly similar criminal justice ethics texts and discuss the pros and cons in selecting reading material for this type of course.
Joycelyn Pollock's Ethics in Crime and Justice: Dilemmas and Decisions (4th Ed.) provides readers with a thorough theoretical underpinning for making ethical decisions. Pollock reflects on current events while providing the foundation for understanding ethics as it correlates to the topics of policing, courts and corrections. The text boasts 14 chapters and 426 pages of ethical theory, chapter queries, sidebars, review questions, and ethical dilemmas. Some of the changes in this edition include addressing post-September 11 issues, the suggestion of fictional resources such as films and movies to enhance learning, reducing the number of pages devoted to ethical systems, and adding three new chapters that cover retributive justice, issues germane to prosecutors and judges and community corrections.
The first two chapters are designed to familiarize the reader with the basic foundation of ethics and the ethical systems. In Chapter 1 Pollock introduces the reader to the concept of ethics, morality and values. The chapter sets up the case for why ethics is important overall and in particular to the field of criminal justice. Chapter 2 explores seven ethical systems that are referenced throughout the text which includes: ethical formalism, utilitarianism, religious ethics, natural law, ethics of virtue, ethics of care, and egoism. Pollock provides the historical basis for each system and explores the criticisms of each while placing them in the broader context of deontological and teleological systems.
Pollock presents three methods of moral...