Summary
The text introduces the reader to ethical decision making in the first chapter and then presents three major ethical perspectives: virtue, formalism, and utilitarianism. It then moves to the social and criminal justice context, in which ethics is discussed in separate chapters as it relates to law, police, courts, corrections, and liability in general. The final chapter looks to the future development of ethics in everyday life.
Contents
1. Recognizing ethical decisions: ethics and critical thinking -- 2. Virtue ethics: seeking the good -- 3. Formalism: carrying out obligation and duty -- 4. Utilitarianism: measuring consequences -- 5. Crime and law: which behaviors ought to be crimes? -- 6. Police: how should the law be enforced? -- 7. Courts: how ought a case be adjudicated? -- 8. Punishment and corrections: what should be done with offenders? -- 9. Liability: what should be the consequence of unethical conduct? -- 10. The future: will we be more or less ethical?