NCJ Number
145648
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 21 Issue: 4 Dated: (1993) Pages: 339- 352
Date Published
1993
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This paper introduces Habermas's distinction between technical and symbolic communicative frameworks as a promising strategy for rethinking ethical decisionmaking in police work.
Abstract
Much of the current scholarship on police ethics ignores the fundamental impact of the rational-purposive organization on ethical decisionmaking. As a consequence, debate has quibbled about whether deontological, teleological, or other moral theories provide solutions to moral dilemmas. This debate has failed to take into account a set of structural preconditions to ethical discourse or, for that matter, to comprehend the practical issues at stake in ethical discussion and training. Habermas's symbolic- interactive approach establishes bilateral communication, role reciprocity, and binding consensual norms as essential ingredients for an efficacious ethics code. Although modern police organizations, as presently structured, do not offer a favorable environment for these conditions, efforts to make policing less bureaucratic would foster their development. Note, case citation, and 39 references