NCJ Number
197748
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2002 Pages: 66-88
Date Published
2002
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article provides an analysis of how males and females make ethical decisions.
Abstract
Carol Gilligan’s research has had a big impact on studies of gender and moral philosophy. Gilligan challenged traditional moral concepts and introduced a different set of moral concepts that arose out of her research with all female subjects. Her research made the claim that males and females articulated ethical issues using two distinct voices (the difference theory). These two voices have become widely known as the “morality of justice” and the “morality of care.” The limitations of traditional ethics were that the core premises and research of Western moral philosophy were the product of males; the subjects of empirical research had been mostly male; and the descriptions of moral development were linear and structuralist. Gilligan’s difference theory introduced new and fundamental concepts of care, needs, interdependence, and social trust as the glue that holds society together. Criticisms of the difference theory consist of those claiming that the empirical evidence does not support a gender difference in morality, and those claiming that even if there is an empirical difference it is a difference that damages rather than helps women’s efforts toward greater economic, political, and social equality. As a moral orientation, the ethic of care seems especially relevant to criminal justice ethics. Four approaches that have been adopted by criminal justice professionals are the superiority approach, the separate and equal approach, the integration approach, and the diversity approach. Criminal justice ethics might obtain significant benefits by recognizing the adequacy of moral theories that integrate a care orientation. 3 footnotes, 95 references, appendix