Ethics In Evaluating Criminal Justice Programs
Ethics in Evaluating Criminal Justice Programs
Ethics in Evaluating Criminal Justice Programs
The basis for the conclusion reached, methods of evaluation, and reasoning, requires ethical guidelines and ethical individuals conducting evaluations of programs. According to Dr. Paul and Dr. Elder ethical reasoning abilities are important for numerous reasons. Dr. Paul and Dr. Elder explain how the majority of individuals “confuse ethics with behavior, in accordance with social conventions, religious beliefs, and the law instead of seeing ethics as a domain unto itself, a set of concepts and principles that guide us in determining what behavior helps or harms sentient creatures” (Paul & Elder, 2003). Another definition of ethics given by Raymond Carey and Emil Poseavac explains ethics in the sense of conducting evaluations as not only “the study of right or wrong conduct but a descriptive discipline, involving the collection of interpretation of data on what people from various cultures believe, without consideration for the appropriateness or reasonableness of those beliefs or the finding of answers to specific questions, determining which is reasonable and therefore people should believe and examining the system or program to appraise the logical foundations and internal consistency” (Carey, 2003). Those conducting evaluations of a criminal justice program should be “kind, open-minded, impartial, truthful, honest, compassionate, considerate, and honorable rather than being; deceitful, vindictive, prejudiced, bigoted, or self serving” (Paul & Elder, 2003). Many organizations or program leaders have according to Ruggiero begun “developing ethical principles to guide the work of those conducting evaluations or research” (Ruggiero, 2004). Ethical issues arising in evaluations of criminal justice programs are numerous and the importance of ethical individuals conducting the evaluation is important for the program and society as a whole.
Evaluations of...
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