NCJ Number
226613
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2009 Pages: 126-144
Date Published
April 2009
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This article examines the relationship between human rights and the general ethical principles and standards in the American Psychological Association’s (APA's) code of ethics as applied to forensic practitioners in their clinical work.
Abstract
The article first analyzes the concept of human rights, their structure, and their justification. It notes that individuals hold rights simply because they are members of the human race; and as such, they should be considered capable of formulating their own goals and planning ways to realize them in their daily lives. Human rights create a zone of protection and entitlement around each individual that should not be violated by other individuals, institutions, or governments. From a psychological perspective, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) imposes important general ethical constraints on practice and encourages psychologists to think carefully about the relationship between human rights and forensic clinical interventions. The article also briefly outlines the APA’s most recent code of ethics and the principles and standards that compose it. The aims of the APA’s ethical code are to provide specific standards that address most situations encountered by psychologists, so as to ensure they act for the welfare and protection of individuals and groups with whom psychologists work. The article concludes by examining the relationship between the current human rights model and the APA’s code, explaining how it is able to provide an additional ethical resource for forensic practitioners in their clinical work and so deepen their ethical sensibilities and decisionmaking. The article suggests a useful way of connecting human rights to the core values in the general principles of the APA’s ethical code. Five principles are explained: “beneficence and nonmaleficence,” “fidelity and responsibility,” “integrity,” “justice,” and “respect for people’s rights and dignity.” A case study is provided. 2 figures and 21 references