Criminal justice professionals need to be trained in ethical practices and moral reasoning to justify behavior that justifies their roles and expectations from society. It is vital to enable a comprehensive analysis of the ethical perspectives of moral reasoning and behavior so that criminal justice professionals can effectively fulfill their duties. This paper will examine various aspects of moral reasoning related to moral behavior, and how moral decision-making influences people. This is an essential ethical constituent of philosophy and has become a highly stained concept. It is often misinterpreted to such an extent that moral values are recognized to be stubbornly and arrogantly imposed on society. This paper will address the issue of moral reasoning processes in justifying the behavior of professionals (Banks, 2009, pp. 4).
Morality and ethics are terms that can be used interchangeably in denoting philosophical inquiries relating to notions of acceptable and unacceptable norms of behavior. The terms also need to be examined in the context of how social and cultural systems are created through them. Moral behavior is a meaningful objective presuming that moral reasoning that is used for the behavior is rational, dependable, and in keeping with the underlying values of all concerned people. Moral systems need to exist to create groups and societies that have the instinct of not killing or raping or robbing people. It is important for all concerned to unanimously accept that this is the basic objective for all systems to strive for. The entire morality of any society or community which is represented by low levels of murders, rapes, thefts, and robberies is a desirable goal and a measure of the achievements of any moral system. The ability of the system to evaluate its success in this regard should be strengthened by the comprehension of any differences prevailing amongst moral reasoning and moral behavior.
Lawrence Kohlberg was a pioneering researcher of moral reasoning and held that the actions, perceptions, and attitudes of people were impacted by how they thought and reasoned. He researched the process of reasoning that is used in solving ethical dilemmas instead of the resultant judgment and regulations that promote social justice. He investigated and found that there are three evolving steps of moral reasoning. They pertain to the stages of pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. All these three stages are characterized by two further stages each and the six steps lead to decisions that were not possible to make in earlier ages. He believed that children of ages between 6 and 11 years tended to rationalize in a pre-conventional manner. Initially, they may take decisions that convey the requirement of obeying moral rules to escape from punishments but a few years later may reason in reflecting the need to reciprocate kind treatment or in their favor. The ability of any person regarding moral reasoning grows over his or her life period and from the age of twelve onwards, humans appear to rationalize in traditional ways and society-focused. Initially, they would wish to gratify other people or get approval from society for having followed the established rules of the community. Subsequently, they can reason from the perspectives of law and order and of becoming law-abiding citizens. It is very rare for the third stage to occur whereby post-conventional reasoning is adopted.
Kohlberg however held that people will ultimately reason by using the procedures that are established by way of individual reflections instead of legal paradigms and personal values of people. However, there is not much evidence to substantiate the existence of such reasoning. It is asserted by some theorists that it is required of society to be more apprehensive regarding moral behavior as compared to moral reasoning. People usually exhibit moral behavior in keeping with the norms of society by sharing, helping, cooperating, communicating empathy and sympathy, and in demonstrating the ability to pay attention to others including the community. Usually, such behavior does not aim at getting any rewards as is reflected in the subsequent steps of moral reasoning. Moral behavior results in positive feelings, associations, and relationships with other people.
Moral reasoning is not the only means to lead to moral behaviors. It is known that killing people is not right given the inbuilt human values which teach that murder is a sin. It can also be inferred that the cruelty associated with murder is centered on the principle that it is illegal. Both the given situations are examples of incorrect reasoning that arrive at the right inference. For, several things are labeled as sinful in religion without there being any basis of a moral argument to substantiate the same. There have also been several laws framed in the past that are presently considered unjust.
In a moral system, the means are important for a large number of reasons. Unless a person fully understands the reasoning related to any system, he or she will in all probability deviate from the rules or distort them in making them highly unsuitable for the given purpose. A moral system that is entirely rule-based can succeed at most times, but it is dependent on certain levels of authority. If the authority disintegrates, the moral system too will suffer the same fate. The rule-based moral system will also compound the chances of inconsistencies in the process of setting standards related to a definite outline of moral reasoning. If the moral system is to succeed it should remain fully consistent within the given boundaries.
The strongest case for the inevitability of moral reasoning pertains to the fact that unless there is a mechanism that generates moral conclusions, there are very few means available in dealing with the newly created circumstances in human interactions. The rule-based moral system can be exhaustively well planned but unless there is a high level of consciousness about the reasoning and the principle behind the rule, the moral system will not succeed. This is very true when there are varying understandings of the social certainties as also when people are faced with fresh and testing circumstances for which the given moral codes do not provide any solutions. Human existence and society are huge and changing constantly and it becomes vital to find ways in combating the changes with realistic levels of understandings. Similarly, there is a restrained difference between the objective of morality by decree or revelation and of morality by reasoning. The objective of morality appears to be more concerned about evaluating actions taken in the past whereby sins and virtues are quantified to differentiate between the gullible and guilty. The objective of morality by reasoning is primarily involved with the guiding forces in the current and coming moments in leading to behavior that can be justified. In a rational moral system, the role of judgment is compliant to the guiding forces emanating from the actions and decisions.
Moral reasoning and behavior are known to be impacted to some extent by the kind of circumstances and interpersonal variables such as age groups and gender present in a society at any given time. Moral reasoning is considerably influenced by the prevailing cognitive and emotional factors and there is no gender division amongst the ethics of justice and the ethics of caring and altruism. Moral reasoning and behavior are essentially recognized as being equally congruent although the extents of congruence decline as the assessments become more objective. Moral reasoning is also cultivated by the communication and management of cultural value systems, ethics, and beliefs which also influence the behavioral pattern of people. Lesser means of support like role modeling can promote moral development but active reflections are more prone to result in moral actions instead of just tolerating social principles and laws; hence it is necessary to encourage moral development.
Reference List
Banks, C, (2009). Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice, 2nd edition, (pp. 4) SAGE Publications.