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A slight decrease in stock theft in many provinces in South Africa must be commended irrespective of the reasons behind the decrease because it is a step in the right direction. However, an increase in stock theft in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa is a cause for concern and must be handled with urgency. This paper examines the extent to which the community is involved in the fight against stock theft in the rural areas of the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The study employed a qualitative research approach that used semi-structured in-depth interviews to collect data. The sample consisted of 22 participants selected through purposive sampling, who included farmers, herdsmen, Community Police Forum members, and community leaders. The study found that the community in the rural areas of Mpumalanga is not involved in the fight against stock theft and that this could mainly be attributed to the poor relationship between the South African Police Service and the community. It was also found that poverty and unemployment are the main contributing factors to increased stock theft in the rural areas of the Dr Pixley Ka Isaka Seme Local Municipality in Mpumalanga.

This article considers why and how evidence-based practice has become distorted in practice, and what to do about it. We present qualitative data from an action research project in policing to highlight tensions between the rhetoric and reality of evidence-based practice, and the ways in which evidence-based practice’s seductive catchphrase ‘what works’ is being understood and applied. Through the lens of care ethics, we integrate ‘what matters’ with ‘what works’, and ‘what matters/works here’ with ‘what matters/works everywhere’. This approach recognizes relational expertise, practical reasoning and critical inquiry as vital for evidence-based practice in practices of social intervention. Drawing on key care ethics motifs, we suggest that care is the ethical scaffolding upon which social justice relies, and hence crucial to organs of security, peacekeeping and law enforcement. From this position, we argue that policing might renegotiate its difficult relationship with the particular, recasting it from something uncomfortably discretionary (the maverick cop) and shameful (an individualized blame culture) into something that underpins and enhances police professionalism. While developed in a policing context, these reflections have a broader relevance for questions of professional legitimacy and credibility, especially within the ‘new professions’, and the costs of privileging any one type of understanding over others.

Recent events of police misconduct sparked a nationwide debate on the effectiveness of police ethics training. In this article, we ask: do basic police academies prepare future police officers to b...

Human source management (HSM) is an area of policing that is fraught with ethical and legal risks, and yet until relatively recently has received limited attention in policing literature. This arti...

The object of the research in the paper is the treatment of corruption and strengthening the integrity of the Kosovo Police. The aim of the conducted research is not only to inform the public and the reader to understand the causes and the specific forms of corrupted behavior and abuse of official duty from the police officers, but to also inform them with damages that are caused to the values of police culture and ethics in general, as well as the measures to be taken. Growth and development of the Police with human resources and legal competencies, by a certain individual is often accompanied by abuse and deviation from the exercise of those powers during the exercise of official duty, and investigations conducted during 2015-2019 testify the involvement of police officers in criminal offenses with corrupt elements. This research is based on and implements a research and comparative approach and model related to the phenomenon of corruption in the Kosovo police for the period from 2015-2019. The case that is being studied aims to learn through the comparative method regarding the investigation and treatment of corruption in the police of Kosovo and Albania. In the final analysis of this paper from all the conclusions and recommendations it can be said that the ways of recognizing the existence of corrupt behaviors and identifying work in preventing, detecting and cracking down on this negative phenomenon by both the police themselves and the specialized oversight and control structures, avoids and reduces corruption.

Since the beginning of UN peace operations, there has been discussion as to exactly how they should be carried out. Thus far, a just theory of UN peacekeeping operations has not yet been formed, in the way a Theory of Just War for waging war or a theory of police ethics for law enforcement in a peace context had been formed. The article discusses what a justified risk distribution between UN peacekeepers and local civilians should be. One of the points of criticism of UN peacekeeping missions is the lack of protection of the local population in the course of an escalating situation. Familiar examples are the traumas of Rwanda (1994) and Srebrenica (1995). Discussing differences between UN peacekeeping missions, warfare, and law enforcement, it appears that peacekeepers have more in common with law enforcers than with combatants during wartime. Through the method of analogy and by applying some typically military ethics principles, the moral status of the UN peacekeepers is analyzed. Finally, a risk distribution analysis between UN peacekeepers and the local population is carried out, by offering a concise overview by philosophers of arguments for and against taking fewer risks by peacekeepers. The analysis reveals important deontological and consequentialist arguments. Taking also into consideration that transferring more risk to the peacekeeping troops alone does not mandatory lead to less exposure to risk of the vulnerable and innocent local civilians, it can be concluded that a more practical, virtuous, responsible risk calculation will be necessary at that point to find the best risk distribution.

Maryland ’s new law provides a model for others

Questions about when it is right for police forces to investigate alleged offences committed in the more or less distant past have become increasingly pressing. Recent widely publicized cases of child sexual abuse (CSA) and exploitation, sometimes involving high profile individuals, have illustrated the ethical, psychological, and forensic complexities of investigating non-recent child sexual abuse. Hannah Maslen and Colin Paine have developed the Oxford CSA Framework to assist police to weigh the various ethical considerations that militate for and against initiating a CSA investigation. While such a tool is to be welcomed, and while there is much that is helpful in Maslen and Paine’s approach, we suggest that the Oxford CSA framework could be strengthened. Our first suggestion is to abandon a proposed distinction between a set of considerations that is said to generate a “presumption” in favor of investigation and other considerations that may supplement or oppose this presumption. Our second suggestion is to review the weightings applied to the considerations within the model, which lack clear justification and create problematic effects. Finally, we suggest that referring the Oxford CSA Framework to a panel with lived and professional experience of CSA could serve important procedural justice goals and enhance the Framework’s recommendations.

This article analyses proportionality as a potential element of a theory of morally justified surveillance, and sets out a teleological account. It draws on conceptions in criminal justice ethics and just war theory, defines teleological proportionality in the context of surveillance, and sketches some of the central values likely to go into the consideration. It then explores some of the ways in which deontologists might want to modify the account. Specifically, it reviews the idea that the set of goods should be restricted, that proportionality should require a surplus of good, and that there should be both an upper and a lower-bound on the badness of proportional surveillance. Each of these ideas is shown to raise severe difficulties. Finally, the article considers whether to adopt a narrow or a wide proportionality condition, reviews an argument for the former, and concludes in favour of the latter.

In the wider spectrum of Taiwanese public service spheres, the herculean services and dedication of its committed Police personnel have long been recognized, respected, and admired. However, regrettably, question marks concerning their conduct, discipline, and abuse of power have surfaced on intermittent occasions. A classic example that lingers in the public memory is the bribing of Taiwanese video game companies to some unscrupulous elements of the police department, in the closing decades of the 20th century that triggered public outrage and called for scrutiny concerning serious lapses in the discipline and conduct of Police personnel. This research paper endeavors to understand, analyze and address some of those issues based on empirical data on the police personnel of certain specific work zones/areas taking into account holistically both the sentenced police officers vis-à-vis the law-abiding police officers. This module looks into and sieves through available data for seven critical variables, including their degree of variation through the Identification and Analysis Method to develop a Predictive Model on Police Ethics and the important factors that affect Police Ethics. Concretely based on the integrated research, it is proposed that this Predictive Model has good applicability as well as accurate predictive ability in addressing the core issues that affect Police Ethics. It is hoped that through this Early Warning Predictive Model—all the stakeholders that are Policy and Decision-makers, Regulatory Police Agencies but more importantly the Police personnel themselves would effectively address the criticality of the issues that affect the Police Ethics so as to undertake competent and effective measures to erase/lessen the menace and provide an early rehabilitative care/assistance to build a strong, constructive and visionary Taiwanese Police Force to meet the challenges of 21st century and beyond.

This article considers what can be learned regarding the ethical acceptability of intrusive interventions intended to halt the spread of infectious disease (‘Infection Control’ measures) from existing ethical discussion of intrusive interventions used to prevent criminal conduct (‘Crime Control’ measures). Despite the ethical parallels between these two types of measures and the fact that Crime Control measures have been subjected to greater ethical scrutiny, there has, to my knowledge, been no attempt to draw out the implications of the ethical analysis of Crime Control for the ethical acceptability of Infection Control. The main body of the article identifies and briefly describes six objections that have been advanced against Crime Control, and considers how these might apply to Infection Control. The final section then draws out some more general lessons from the foregoing analysis for the ethical acceptability of different kinds of Infection Control.

The importance of ethics in policing and, therefore, in police education and training, is widely acknowledged. Nonetheless, disagreement often exists about the ways in which police ethics subjects ...

This chapter focuses on the criminal justice system. It contains summaries of the different social theories that underpin both the criminal justice system and the fundamental principles relating to sentencing policy. The system is examined in three segments: pre-trial stages, trial stage, and post-trial stages. Each is discussed in turn. This chapter emphasizes the holistic approach by looking not only at what happens in courts, but also the police station and in post-trial contexts such as parole and criminal cases review. The place of the victim in the system is also considered. Particular emphasis is placed on how the current system is changing in the quest for improved efficiency.

In earlier chapters, police practitioners and scholars have highlighted many of the issues relating to the theory and practice of policing in an age of reform. They also examined innovative uses of technology for forensic investigations and intelligence. Further, they explored the benefits of community building and cooperation with civil society organisations. In this chapter, we take on the important philosophical question: What makes something right or wrong in policing and why? The chapter provides a philosophical and empirical grounding for the practical application of ethics in a new era of policing.

[ ]to me, as a woman of color leading the country's largest public health agency, Mr Floyd's death feels different because it represents a cumulative injury on top of the sustained acuity of health inequities playing out in horrifying details through the COVID-19 pandemic Think ofa collective moral injury as lasting emotional and spiritual impacts on a community when authorities commit actions that violate core moral values and expectations of righteous behavior [ ]agency partners, health care providers, community leaders, and government officials immediately joined us in centering the most affected New Yorkers in their responses to the virus

Criminal justice courses offer ideal opportunities to present students with contemporary issues that ideally will encourage reflection on moral dilemmas. In a criminal justice ethics course, studen...

Regardless the specific theoretical perspective, all ethical formulations for criminal justice practice in some way construct the ontological character of the offender, which, in turn, situates both epistemology and method. How this ethical process ultimately constructs the offender will likely help to establish the degree of ethical worth such an individual is deemed worthy to receive. Whether based upon the seriousness of the crime or based upon the specific configuration of the architecture of incarceration, the very possibility of legitimate ethical practice is greatly compromised. Such results can be better avoided when the ethical import of the individual is ontologically situated within the very definition of what it means to be human.1By situating this discussion within the context of the analytic psychology of Carl Jung and his concept of the shadow and the originary ethics of Martin Heidegger found in Being and Time, a more ontologically configured possibility for a criminal justice ethics can be recognized.

Purpose There is considerable evidence to illustrate police occupational culture can negatively influence service delivery and organizational reform. To counteract this, and to improve professionalism, the police services of England and Wales will become a graduate profession from 2020, although little empirical evidence exists as to what impact this will have. The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of a police degree course on its students. Design/methodology/approach Initially, a survey was conducted with 383 university students studying for criminal justice-related undergraduate degrees in a UK university. This indicated Police Foundation degree students (n=84), identified themselves as being different, and behaving differently, to other university students. To explore the reasons for this, four focus groups were conducted with this cohort, during their two-year degree programme. Findings The study found that the Police Foundation degree students quickly assimilated a police identity, which affected their attitudes and behavior. The process led to a strengthening of ties within their own student group, at the expense of wider student socialization. Originality/value The study provides new findings in relation to undergraduate students who undertake a university-based degree programme, tailored to a future police career. The results have implications for both police policy makers and those in higher education as it highlights the strength of police occupational culture and the implications for the design of future police-related degree programmes.

The killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and others have instigated widespread debate concerning the ethics and politics of police b...

In times of widespread illegal fishing, fisheries law enforcement is a big challenge for coastal States which often lack the necessary resources to properly police their maritime zones (Internal Waters, Territorial Sea, Archipelagic Waters, and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)). As a result, enforcement efforts of coastal States often produce an insufficient “demonstration effect” (through monitoring, control and surveillance) and “deterrence effect” (through enforcement and sanctions). This inadequate enforcement capacity can be supplemented by inter-State cooperation and public-private partnerships with non-profit non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or other private entities such as for-profit private security companies (PSCs). However, environmental law enforcement powers such as search, question, arrest, and use of force are usually allocated to specific governmental law enforcement agencies such as the coast guard, environmental government agencies, customs agencies, or the navy. This raises the question if, and to what extent, other States or private actors such as NGOs and PSCs could assist in or take over law enforcement functions. The present article will approach this issue from an international legal perspective. It will first provide case-studies of inter-State cooperation and public-private partnerships in fisheries law enforcement for factual background. Particularly attention will be paid to parallels in the practice of inter-State cooperation and public-private partnerships. The case-studies will be followed by a legal analysis from the perspective of public international law with a focus on the international law of the sea. Finally, the article will offer some general conclusions about the legality of such cooperation schemes as well as practical potentials and risks associated with them.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that police research has reached a level of acceptance such that executive management has an ethical obligation to their communities to use evidence-based practices. Design/methodology/approach Using an Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) framework the authors apply an ethical-based decision-making model to policing decisions. EBM does not allow physicians to ignore research when giving guidance to patients. The authors compare the two professional approaches to decision making and argue policing has reached a level of research that if ignored, just like medicine, should be considered unethical. Police interventions can potentially be harmful. Rather than do no harm, the authors argue that police managers should implement practices that are the least harmful based on the current research. Findings The authors found policing has a substantial amount of research showing what works, what does not, and what looks promising to allow police executives to make decisions based on evidence rather than tradition, culture, or best practice. There is a deep enough fund of knowledge to enable law enforcement leadership to evaluate policies on how well the policies and procedures they enforce prevent crime with a minimum of harm to the communities they are sworn to protect and serve. Originality/value Policing has yet to view community interventions as potentially harmful. Realigning police ethics from a lying, cheating, stealing, lens to a “doing the least harm” lens can alter the practitioner’s view of why evidence-based policing is important. Viewing executive decision from an evidence-based ethical platform is the future of evaluating police executive decisions.

This study examines the effects of three theoretical factors representing both process-based and outcome-based dimensions of police actions on attitudes towards police using an experimental vignette design. We constructed two vignettes depicting citizens’ plausible encounters with police in an urban setting in a developing country (i.e. Accra, Ghana) and varied the level of police procedural justice, measured by quality of treatment, lawfulness, measured by whether or not a bribe is present, and effectiveness, measured by whether or not the offender was caught. In line with previous research, we find that dimensions of police procedural justice, lawfulness, and effectiveness all increase citizens’ satisfaction. However, we find that in certain situations, unlawfulness and ineffectiveness can undermine any positive influence of procedural justice policing on satisfaction. These findings have implications for criminal justice institutions seeking to improve relations with citizens and boost satisfaction and ultimately legitimacy.

This paper considers select emergent issues arising from the reform of the EU data protection framework, and how these might impact upon data processing in the law enforcement and criminal justice ...

Although the process-based model of criminal justice has received substantial empirical attention, few previous studies have examined individuals embedded in a criminal lifestyle and at the most risk for future offending, and few have focused exclusively on female offenders. Employing structural equation modeling, the present study tests the process-based model of self-regulation among a sample of 694 incarcerated females. Specifically examined is the effect of perceptions of voice in respondents’ most recent encounter with police on their perceptions of police procedural justice and the impact of respondents’ procedural justice perceptions on their perceived obligation to obey the law. Results reveal support for the process-based model among serious female offenders, though the impact may be attenuated by increased experience with the criminal justice system. Policy implications are discussed.

Whenever major schisms between police and communities come to public attention, there are always passionate calls for an increased emphasis on - and improvement of - police training. This rhetoric is so common that police leaders joke that there is no societal problem so big that it can’t be fixed by better police training. Still, professional socialization in law enforcement remains an important topic with a great deal of resources being devoted to developing initiatives and augmenting existing curricula. This training comes in many forms including learning the nuts and bolts of many legal processes and acquiring the practical skills for law enforcement. However, beyond this, there is a socialization process with multiple facets including the development of solidarity and trust among a cohort of recruits. We attempt to understand the basic mechanisms of network creation in police academies as the foundation of the socialization processes within them. By focusing on these network mechanisms underlying the establishment of the ‘Thin Blue Line’, we offer an understanding of the underlying social processes foundational for the transmission of police culture. In short, we think the recruit network structure functions as a vehicle for cultural transmission within police academies.

PurposeThe current criminal justice system is pledged to serve and protect society while preserving the rights of those who are accused. The purpose of this paper is to explore the premise of “innocent until proven guilty” and examine whether this assumption truly prevails under the current criminal justice system, or be modified to accommodate a sliding continuum of virtuosity.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a conceptual paper which relies heavily on the current literature about criminal justice and related ethical issues.FindingsThe paper argues that today’s criminal justice system fails to meet the standards of the virtuous continuum and that those who oversee that system need to rethink how the system operates and is perceived by the public if they wish the criminal justice system to be perceived as just, fair, and ethically responsible.Research limitations/implicationsBecause this paper is a conceptual paper it does not present research hypotheses.Practical implicationsThis paper suggests that “virtue” and “ethics” must be the foundation upon which the criminal justice system is evaluated, and criminal justice must incorporate an ethical standard which is virtuous and fair to all parties and leaders who oversee that system must meet the standards suggested by the virtuous continuum.Originality/valueThis paper is among the first to identify the viewpoint of the virtuous perspective, moral perspective, amoral perspective, and immoral perspective in the criminal justice system.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the dimensions of organizational justice in police organizations and evaluate how they contribute to organizational commitment, job satisfaction and compliance with agency rules. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 15,236 sworn officers from a national sample of 88 agencies was used, as well as other agency- and community-level variables. Multi-level models assessed how four dimensions of organizational justice affected these outcomes. Findings More favorable perceptions of organizational justice were strongly related to increased commitment to the organization, job satisfaction and compliance with agency rules. Perceptions of organization-wide justice, leadership justice and diversity justice were especially important in predicting those outcome measures. Research limitations/implications While the sample of agencies was broad and diverse, it should not be considered representative of smaller municipal police departments and sheriff’s offices in the USA. Practical implications The findings suggest that “buy in” to reforms and police compliance with rules is much more likely when supervisors and leaders are fair, respectful, give officers input, provide growth opportunities and show concern for officers’ welfare. As such, agencies would benefit from leadership and leadership training that values the core principals of organizational justice. Originality/value The study provides clarity about how organizational justice is perceived by police officers, including women and officers of color, and provides an unprecedented test of organizational justice theory in diverse police agencies.

Purpose There is widespread interest in moving beyond crime statistics to measure police performance in new ways, especially the quality of police-community interactions that influence police legitimacy and public trust. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Police-Community Interaction Survey (PCIS) developed by the National Police Research Platform. Design/methodology/approach The PCIS collected data from 53 police agencies around the USA in 2013-2014. The psychometric properties of the constructs measured are presented. This study also offers a preliminary test of the effects of an alternatively specified and expanded procedural justice model on willingness to cooperate with the police, mediated through perceptions of officer trustworthiness. Findings Scales were developed with good reliability and validity that measure various aspects of the police-community interactions. The authors find evidence that empathy is an important addition to the procedural justice model, and that the effects of procedural justice on willingness to cooperate with the police are partially mediated through perceptions of officer trustworthiness. Originality/value This is the first attempt to validate the measurement of police-community interactions on a large scale in the USA with policy implications at the local and national levels. The findings can help local police agencies incorporate new performance metrics at the individual, group, and agency levels. Nationally, the science of policing can be advanced by specifying the antecedents and consequences of respectful and empathic actions, including behavior that strengthens police-community relations.

The article investigates the role of scholarly expertise in and around the international criminal courts. Building on the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, the article analyses the influence of different forms of scholarship by situating them in the wider ‘field’ of international criminal law. Structured by opposing poles of social worth organized around different perceptions of what is considered valuable knowledge, scholarship on international criminal law took competing forms. A dominant form of scholarship is oriented towards societal impact and caters to legal practice, while more critical perspectives adhere to norms of disinterest and autonomy embedded in academia. Formatted by the larger field of practice in which they exist and by their relative proximity to the opposing poles of societal and academic power and prestige, these perspectives structure the professional rules that govern the field and thus affect the development of its law by defining what is perceived as relevant knowledge.

Procedural justice is known to enhance perceptions of police legitimacy. Studies show that procedural justice may be less effective for some individuals and groups, while others show it to be more effective. This study investigates the contingency of the procedural justice effect and considers the effectiveness of procedural justice for certain individuals through the concept of disengagement. Utilizing a survey of 1480 ethnic minority group members, the study tests whether or not disengagement moderates the effect of procedural justice on perceptions of police legitimacy. As expected, we find procedural justice is linked to enhanced perceptions of police legitimacy, while disengagement is associated with reduced perceptions of legitimacy. Interestingly, the study finds that procedural justice is more effective for building legitimacy for ethnic minority respondents who report being highly disengaged from police. These findings highlight how police might be able to improve perceptions of their legitimacy among disaffected minority communities.

The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice. By Nina M. Moore. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. 406 pp. $30.99 paperback.In April 2016, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters clashed with Bill Clinton over his role in the passage of the 1994 Crime Bill and Hillary Clinton's use of the term "super predators" to describe the involvement of black youth in criminal offenses. Demonstrators sought to highlight how policymakers and the general public construct narratives and social policies that fuel misperceptions, thereby deepening racial inequality in criminal justice practices throughout the United States. Political pundits largely glossed over the substance of protester concerns because the crime bill did not explicitly target specific racial groups. To address the essence of the BLM critique would require a theory of the policy process that explains racial inequality in criminal justice experiences. Nina Moore's book, The Political Roots of Racial Tracking in American Criminal Justice, provides such a policy process framework.Moore examines the mechanisms that give rise to racial disparities in the criminal justice system and explains why these inequities persist despite considerable national attention to issues of fairness and justice. Her book makes two arguments. First, Moore argues that there are two racially distinct modes of criminal law enforcement in the United States: one white and one black. She contends that racial tracking in the criminal justice system must be evaluated sequentially, from initial contact with police officers to differences in plea negotiations with prosecutors, both of which culminate in racialized differences in pretrial court decisions and prison experiences.The second argument advanced by Moore is that racial tracking in criminal justice persists precisely because policymakers and the American public allow different modalities of law enforcement, even when stark differences in applications of justice contravene constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. She presents a basic principles policy process that anchors empirical insights and disagreements in the study of policymaking with commonalities expressed in varied policy perspectives. By drawing on six policy process axioms-principles that focus on politics, systems, opportunities, multidimensionality, power players, and problemprocess kinship-Moore articulates a seventh maxim, the public origins principle, that fully integrates these perspectives to produce a theory of racial tracking in criminal justice.This is an impressive piece of socio-legal scholarship. Five empirical chapters thoroughly enumerate and rigorously evaluate how colorblind Supreme Court decisions, public opinion polls, political party politics, and congressional agendas impede racial equality in criminal justice. Moore critically analyzes twenty-three Sixth Amendment cases affecting the right to counsel, eighteen Fifth Amendment cases, and twenty of the most noted capital punishment decisions. In each instance, she shows how the Court's reasoning and decision-making process represents a longstanding use of colorblind jurisprudence that is not localized to any one decision or to a handful of cases; instead, her work uncovers how the Court systematically legitimates persistent racial inequalities in law enforcement methods.Professor Moore also presents an in-depth analysis of public opinions on racial progress, criminal victimization, and criminal justice policy in America. …

Sex offenders are sometimes offered or required to undergo pharmacological interventions intended to diminish their sex drive (anti-libidinal interventions or ALIs). In this paper, we argue that much of the debate regarding the moral permissibility of ALIs has been founded on an inaccurate assumption regarding their intended purpose—namely, that ALIs are intended solely to realise medical purposes, not correctional goals. This assumption has made it plausible to assert that ALIs may only permissibly be administered to offenders with their valid consent, in line with the approach taken to most other interventions with a medical aim. However, we argue that, contrary to this assumption, the state's intention in relation to at least some ALIs is, at least in part, to achieve correctional objectives. We evaluate two legal regimes for ALI provision—section 645 of the California Penal Code and the mental health regime in England and Wales. In each case, we identify the state's implicit purpose in imposing ALIs and argue that the Californian and English regimes both serve as counterexamples to the view that ALIs are intended solely for medical purposes. While the moral implications of our argument are not straightforward, it raises the question whether consent is required for permissible imposition of ALIs, and more generally, whether the moral permissibility of crime-preventing interventions using medical means should be assessed against the standards of medical ethics or against those of criminal justice ethics.

While there is plenty of research into crime committed by police officers, surprisingly little debate can be found regarding the situation where a police officer becomes a victim. This is remarkable as the police not only embody criminal law enforcement but also epitomise state power. Based on a comparative study, this article examines how criminal law in England and Germany deals with attacks against police officers through separate criminal offences as well as increased sentences. The authors examine how the use of criminal law reflects on the state’s perception and valuation of the role of the police officer. It will be shown that while in England there is the clear understanding that the status of the victim as police officer has an aggravating effect, Germany strongly opposes the idea that the office-holder deserves more protection than ordinary citizens. On the contrary, the law takes in consideration that the offender finds him- or herself in a vulnerable situation when faced with the power of the state.

The aim of this paper is to present some important contributions to ethics, value theory and political philosophy the former members of the Bioethics Research Group have made. The group was established at the University of Copenhagen in 1992 and was formally dissolved in 1997, but the members continued to work in ethics and political philosophy and set up research groups and centres at four Danish universities. Within four research themes, contributions made over the years are described. Research outputs of the group have, in various ways, served to bring studies of ethics and political philosophy originating in Denmark into the wider international research arena. Members of the group have increasingly included empirical approaches in their research and have thereby participated in the more general “empirical turn” in analytic philosophy. Some members of the group can also be said to have participated in a “pluralist turn”.

This paper examines attitudes towards police ethics and integrity using the responses of police officers and support staff to some ethical dilemmas via an online questionnaire. The aim of the study was to explore potential connections between respondents’ beliefs about the seriousness or type of misdemeanour and their likelihood of reporting the behaviour. Using a series of scenarios, we explore professional ethics and integrity by analysing the evidence from our survey of around 1,500 police officers, police community support officers (PCSOs) and police support staff. Throughout, we aim to show which of the scenarios were considered the most ‘serious’, which are more likely to be reported, and offer some suggestions as to why the ‘blue code’ is significant. The findings suggest the persistence of a reluctance to report some misdemeanours; of the 10 scenarios created for the survey, there was a great deal of certainty around the reporting theft of cash, but respondents were less likely to report a colleague keeping a ‘found’ watch. Accessing the Police National Computer without due authority was seen as relatively ‘serious’ and covering up for a drink-driving colleague and use of excessive force were both likely to be reported. We discovered ambiguities in responses around sexual touching of a colleague in an office setting, but a lower level of concern regarding an officer who forms a romantic relationship with a victim of crime who he met in a professional setting. Respondents expressed distrust in the force’s anonymous messenger system, set up for reporting a colleague’s behaviour without revealing their own identity and said they could treat a whistle-blower with respect or caution, depending on the circumstances of the individual case.