Virtue Ethics
Virtue Ethics is the general term for the concepts that highlight the part of personality or character as well as virtue in morality as opposed to doing one’s duty or doing actions which would result to good consequences and will bring the happiness to the whole group. A person who practices virtue ethics would likely advise something like: “One must act in all situations as a virtuous person.” In other words, given any situation one should do what a virtuous person would do (Virtue Ethics, 2012).
There are a lot of theories under virtue ethics which would be inspired from the ethical theory of Aristotle who asserted that a virtuous individual is someone who has a suitable personality. These attributes are said to be innate and natural to the individual however they must be practiced at all times so that they will remain constant to the individual. For example, a virtuous person is someone who is good to his/her neighbors not because the person wants to maximize the utility or because it is his/her duty. Virtue ethics is not the same as consequentialist and deontological theories. This ethical framework does not aim to see the consequences of the action in order to determine what is good and what is bad neither does it want to arrive at universal principles of morality. This ethical framework deals with these kinds of questions:
- What is the good life?
- What are the virtues one should have?
- How should I live my life?
- How should I act at all times?
This ethical framework was revived in the 20th century. It has been developed in three main ways: Eudaimonism, the ethics of care and agent-based theories. First, Eudaimonism focuses on certain virtues in order for the individual to flourish. In this case, a life worth living is based on reasoning well. Second, the ethics of care asserts that the more feminine traits such as nurturing should also be considered in ethics. Generally, this ethical framework was proposed by feminists. Last but not the least, agent-based theory gives emphasis in the fact that virtues are actually based on intuitions that people judge to be commendable characteristics in other people (Mizzoni, 2010, p.151).
Virtue Ethics and the Criminal Practitioners
Criminal practitioners work in several various areas of the criminal justice system. Each area has unique justifications on why ethics is important to the moral agent of that specific job. If one part or one member of the system has an ethical disjunction then the consequences would have negative effects to the other areas and to the whole criminal justice system (Souryal, 2011, p. 87).
Law enforcement officers are the first people who are directly contacted by the members of the society within the criminal justice system. Virtue ethics come to play in this group of people by letting them know that they should always practice virtues which would make their character more credible and more reliable. There are some police officers who abuse the power given to them and there are some police officers who are not virtuous. These police officers cause the members of the society to distrust them even if they are supposed to be the group of people who should be helping them. These kinds of acts would lead to graft and corruption or worse, police brutality (Braswell, McCarthy, & McCarthy, 2012, p. 237).
For example, law enforcement officers are accused of being involved in noble cause corruption. This is a kind of misconduct which law enforcement officers consider to be justified because they lead to one less criminal on the loose or one less bad guy on the streets. This is based on the moral theory that the ends justify the means.
The officers of the court would include every lawyer and judge in a certain jurisdiction. It is the duty of the defense lawyers to defend their clients however they should not mislead the court even if it will lead to the conviction of a known criminal. In this case, the virtue of not lying in order to save their client should be practiced. On the other hand, prosecutors should assertively practice the trial. They should always keep in mind that a guilty verdict is not victory if there is injustice in the court proceedings. In other words, the prosecutors should not pursue a guilty verdict thinking that it is equated with justice (Muraskin & Muraskin, 2011, p. 7). If the suspect is guilty then one should present a case with evidence sufficient for a guilty verdict. However, if the evidence points out that the suspect is not guilty then the prosecutor avoid engaging in dirty tactics to assure conviction. As we can see, virtue ethics looks into the character of the individuals which would influence their actions. The judges are the most powerful individual in the courtroom. With this in mind, the judge should always be unbiased and impartial to the proceedings. If the judge practices these traits then he/she would be a venue of serving justice to both the prosecution and the defense.
Next in line are the parole and probation officers. The rehabilitation of the person who has been released from jail is in the hands of this people. They are the ones who see to it that the person is doing what the court has required for him/her to do. They should be virtuous people so that they would know if the actions of the released individual should be considered a violation. More than that, these officers are the guide of the released individual. Therefore, they should act in such a way that the released individual would also want to act in the same way.
Counselors are the people who work hand in hand with the people who help out in the rehabilitation of the criminals so that they will not do these criminal actions again and they also help the victims to handle the trauma of the crime to their lives. These people are the rocks of the criminals and the victims. They need to be able to practice virtue ethics in order to ensure that they will be good role models for their patients.
Objections to Virtue Ethics and Reflections about it
There are a lot of criticisms about virtue ethics. Here are two of the most famous objections as well as one’s reflections about it.
The first objection is that virtue ethics seems to promote self-centeredness. Morality is supposed to be the actions of an individual and its effects to the whole group. One can say that an action can be morally praiseworthy or blameworthy depends on the assessment of the behavior of the individual towards the other people. However, in virtue ethics the primary focus is the character of the moral agent only. It is only concerned with the cultivation of virtues which would help the agent’s character flourished. Morality is all about considering the effects of one’s action to the individual and not the well-being of oneself. One can say that the objection does not see the role of virtues in an individual and in the ethical framework. Virtues are actually other-regarding. The main concern is how the agent should respond to the needs of the other people in his/her society in a proper way.
Morality is all about practical issues and how should a person act. Virtue ethics is said to be a failure when it comes to helping an individual with how he should behave with regards to practical issues. This means that the ethical framework does not guide the actions of the individual. However, one can say that it is the other way around. One can say that virtue ethics guides the action of an individual by being a virtuous agent who possesses virtues and acts with accordance to these virtues. In other words, virtue ethics is simple to follow. Just cultivate one’s virtues as much as possible. Always act as a virtuous person in all situations.
Bibliography
Braswell, M., McCarthy, B. R., & McCarthy, B. J. (2012). Justice, crime, and ethics. Amsterdam ; Boston: Elsevier.
Mizzoni, J. (2010). Ethics : the basics. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell.
Muraskin, R., & Muraskin, M. (2011). Morality and the law. Prentice Hall.
Souryal, S. S. (2011). Ethics in criminal justice : in search of the truth. Amsterdam ; Boston: Anderson Pub.
Virtue Ethics. (2012, March 8). Retrieved March 2012, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/
