A course designed to introduce Christian believers to current ethical dilemmas and the challenges that a Christian believer faces while maintaining the honor of the police badge. This course aims to provide students with a Christian framework that leads to better decision-making with the added guidance from the Holy Spirit.
Any minister, lay leader, or mission minded believer engaging persons within the law enforcement community as well as active community members are inevitably asked or ask themselves questions related to criminal justice ethics. Those within the criminal justice profession seeking to live out a missional calling through their work benefit from a structured and guided engagement of ethical issues in criminal justice. These issues are briefly touched in criminal justice training, and most criminal justice professionals are drawn to courses like this after they have gained some experienced in law enforcement. Due to the current state, members of the community benefit by a better understanding of the ethical issues law enforcement faces.
Criminal Justice Ethics is a “hot topic.” The pillars of ethics and ethical theories flow largely out of religious thought and tradition. Secular institutions in the criminal justice system are continually wrestling with ethical issues, and they are actually wrestling with ideas that have long been explored in the Christian faith. It would benefit the larger mission of God for mission-minded individuals with training in criminal justice ethics to be sitting on ethics committees, civilian review boards, and law enforcement review boards by acting as an influential voice to the ever-changing landscape of criminal justice.
Criminal justice theories abound, but not all have a biblical basis. This course helps develop biblically-educated criminal justice providers within their field and community.
If criminal justice practitioners desire to live out their missional calling in the criminal justice field, they desire to guide and shape their colleagues and institutions to act more ethically.
The criminal justice field is a unique ministry context, and a course on criminal justice ethics would help practitioners and the community as a whole apply broader biblical principles to specific criminal justice issues.
A large part of criminal justice ethics tends to the issues of culture and equity. Criminal justice values can change among differing cultures. Ethics takes this into account.
Ethics asks, what is the right thing to do? It is very practical.
Ethics cannot be applied without a case or situation. Learners bring their cases to the table for discussion and learning and return to their practice with the benefit of that learning.
