Criminal Justice

Watch movie: Serpico requires amazon or hulu or showtime account

What is meant by Ethical Dilemmas?
Objectives:
Be able to define and discuss Ethical Dilemmas.
Describe how ethical Dilemmas become issues in criminal activity and or is applied in a criminal case
Present your conclusion in an essay format, if possible

Message:
It is every student’s dream to have an excellent grade and excel in their academic career. Academic and professional excellence is attributed to hard work, dedication, passion, patience, and commitment. This means investing many hours each day in all aspects to strive and achieve every goal you have set. One of many students’ goals and aspirations is to be conversant and consistent in writing and producing excellent and original essays. Essay writing is perhaps an academic common denominator that all students must pass through. It doesn’t matter what level you are or whether you are a first-year student or a graduate student. You must, at one point, write several essays. How to write an article or report will be explored in this assignment!
a. All essay has an introduction. It is the readers’ roadmap to arriving at its attended destination.
b. The essay should have two to three paragraphs referring to the thesis statements in the section.
c. It should have a conclusion outlining the two or three paragraphs listed above and a personal suggestion(s)or remedies.

Assignment Overview:
This paper/summary explores the concept of ethical dilemmas and what constitutes a criminal act in deciding the same.

Deliverables:
A 250 -450 word report

Step 1: Ethical Dilemma Scenario
Please watch the movie below and write an essay (250-450) discussing the ethical or unethical issues involved. You must address at least 5 issues in the movie.

Step 2:
Please review the following questions or statements and provide an answer that sufficiently addresses each. Please make sure your answer meets or exceeds the requirement of 150 – 250 words in length for each scenario analysis. Additionally, include proper APA in-text citations for all direct quotes and paraphrased information as well as a proper APA reference section.

Step 3:
The research assignment is worth 30pts. Please discuss each issue in a separate paragraph or in an essay format.

ANSWER

Ethical Dilemma

The movie begins with a protagonist known as Serpico covered in blood in the back seat of police care. The movie is a highlight and flashback of Serpico’s career from the time he became a police officer (Punch, 2013). Serpico got into the police academy and was inspired of being one of the New York finest corps. While in the academy he was able to arrest two suspects that had been found with a large sum of money and a straight edge razor blade. While in his career he noticed that the attitudes of the officers were entitled to everything at no cost. His first experience was during diner where the other officers demanded to get meals at no cost. This was just but a beginning of a nightmare that Serpico would find himself in him.

Serpico believed in Non-violent methods such as catching criminals and refusing to take part in police corruption (Kane and White, 2012). For instance, he refused to engage in bribes that involved taking bribes from drug dealers and gamblers. Due to his difference in conduct as a police officer, Serpico had issues with fitting with other police officers that raised suspicion about him. Serpico tried to inform the boss about the acts of corruption but this accomplished nothing. Along with his fellow police, Bob Blair, they attempted to persuade the city administration but no action was taken. Due to his poor reputation, he made more enemies than friends in the corrupt environment. As a result, Serpico ended up being shot in the face while on a drug raid with fellow officers who were reluctant to assist him.

The main ethical dilemma in the movie is that Serpico is attempting to expose police corruption for the good of the society but at extreme personal costs. Considerably, this is a right vs right dilemma where all the possibilities have merit and value (Armstrong, 2012). Serpico feels that it is right for him to fit in with other police officers while at the same time he feels it is right to expose the corrupt acts of the police officers for the good of society. The dilemma has greatly influenced the protagonist in that it has greatly influenced his social standings, his marriage, and his safety when he got shot.

Serpico agreed to risk his life by attempting to expose the corrupt corps at his own expense since he perceived this as right. Ideally, his moral choice to expose the police officers was right to him but seemed wrong to other police officers. For instance, the police officers believed that exposing them was the wrong thing to do even though their moral decisions were wrong (Eterno and Silverman, 2018). His wife believed that they needed to place their relationship above the issues of corruption. However, due to this ethical dilemma, Serpico still decided to go after dangerous things that threatened his safety.

Ethical dilemma results in criminal activity due to failure to make the right decisions. For instance, failing to act diligently and quickly can place one in a critical point that results in criminal activity (Miller, 2016). The police officers are in an ethical dilemma to either do what is right or wrong. However, they have decided to be corrupt rather than doing what is morally right. Serpico has illustrated right to right ethical dilemma as he attempts to get rid of police corruption which threatens her safety. He believed in doing what is right, show integrity and strong moral principles that led to the ethical dilemma. Though his relationship with other police officers was influenced by his moral choices, he held in the significance of revealing corruption and in his role to report any abuses in society. Serpico’s priority was to do good with strong moral values and ethics.

In summation, the movie by Serpico has challenged ethical thinking and moral choices. Serpico decides to go public with corruption allegations and would not conform with the police corruption. Through analyzing the ethical dilemma in this movie it indicates that individuals make little attempt to do what is right in a certain situation. There are so many ethical dilemmas in this story that have contributed to the spread of corruption. The movie of Serpico has challenged the idea of ethics since people have their thoughts and moral actions.

References

Armstrong, M. F. (2012). They wished they were honest: The Knapp Commission and New York City police corruption. Columbia University Press.

Eterno, J. A., & Silverman, E. B. (2018). Corruption and Fraud in Policing. In Fraud and Corruption (pp. 125-137). Springer, Cham.

Kane, R. J., & White, M. D. (2012). Jammed-up: Bad cops, police misconduct, and the New York City police department. NYU Press.

Miller, S. (2016). Police Corruption. In Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Policing—Philosophical and Ethical Issues (pp. 23-37). Springer, Cham.

Punch, M. (2013). Police corruption: Exploring police deviance and crime. Routledge.