Root Sins In Criminal Justice

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Ethics plays a significant role in the Criminal Justice field. Unethical behavior varies from one case to another, but the practice of criminal justice is influenced by the four “root sins”. The root sins in Criminal Justice management are lying and deception, the most common; prejudice and racial discrimination, most infamous; egoism and the abuse of authority, the most critical; and misguided loyalties, these are the most troublesome of the root sins (Souryal 2009, p.214). Lying and deception in the court room is a good example of this root sin. Police officers are able to use a variety of powerful psychological ploys to extract confessions from criminal suspects, including the use of deception during interrogation. For example, in the case Frazier v. Cupp, the …show more content…

The police officer then watches him/her and waits for a reason to arrest him or come up and pat them down because they believe that he is up to wrong doing. Egoism and the abuse of authority would be a police officer abusing his power or claiming that he is better than everyone around him because he is in the position he is in. Such as him pulling someone over and when he has them step out of the vehicle, the suspect is unarmed but decides to run. The officer then brings out his weapon and shoots the suspect and the suspect dies because the officer abused his power when he did not need to take such deadly force. Finally, misguided loyalties which are the most troublesome. This would be a police officer taking drugs out of an evidence locker or taking a bribe because he believes that he should live the luxurious life a drug dealer has, and own all of the big expensive objects. He may believe that he is entitled to these items, and he figures why not? He does not get paid enough he deserves these luxurious