Ethics and Criminal Justice

This textbook looks at the main ethical questions that confront the criminal justice system - legislature, law enforcement, courts, and corrections - and those who work within that system, especially police officers, prosecutors, defence lawyers, judges, juries, and prison officers. John Kleinig sets the issues in the context of a liberal democratic society and its ethical and legislative underpinnings, and illustrates them with a wide and international range of real-life case studies. Topics covered include discretion, capital punishment, terrorism, restorative justice, and re-entry. Kleinig's discussion is both philosophically acute and grounded in institutional realities, and will enable students to engage productively with the ethical questions which they encounter both now and in the future - whether as criminal justice professionals or as reflective citizens.
This book shows students the main ethical questions that confront the criminal justice system, illustrated by a range of case studies.
John Kleinig is Director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics and Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Law and Police Science, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and he holds the Charles Sturt University Chair of Policing Ethics in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australian National University.
"...this book is an interesting and easy to read introduction to the ethical dilemmas prompted by the criminal justice system that is likely to generate vivid discussions in the classroom. The tension between security and liberty recently emphasized by the "war on terror," as well as the security concerns that an increasing number of societies face around around the world, make it also a timely contribution. In particular, the book can be an excellent complement in a course on judicial politics and judicial institutions that usually do not consider, or barely, ethical issues regarding the behavior of actors who populate the institutions of the justice system."
--Julios Rios-Figueroa, Division de Estudios Politicos, CIDE, Carretera Mexico-Toluca.

"Ethics and Criminal Justice: An Introduction, [John Kleinig] provides the reader with interesting and thought provoking insight... Intended as an introductory text, the readings are brief yet full of examples the reader can apply to the topic at hand... [recommend it] as a primary primary text for any comprehensive ethics course..."
--Amie R. Scheidegger, Brevard College, North Carolina, International Criminal Justice Review

"Many fine introductions to criminal justice are available, but no competing book rivals Ethics and Criminal Justice in the depth of philosophical sophistication it devotes exclusively to the ethical issues that govern the behavior of criminal justice practitioners. Kleinig demonstrates what can happen when an excellent philosopher turns his attention to the real world of criminal justice. ... it is hard to see how a better introduction could have been written."
-- Douglas Husak, Rutgers University, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews