Final Project Review
Respond to the discussion posts of at least two peers. Consider reviewing their thoughts and stating why your assessment is similar or different from the students that you respond to.
Mine
Ethical analysis is not as easy as I thought but its unity that helps in various aspects of life. I felt fulfilled after doing this project, especially on identifying the ethical theory that was supposed to be used to handle Darren and Brian, the juveniles in the case study. It made me do a lot of research on various ethical theories, and finally, I landed on utilitarianism, which eventually turned out to be the best theory to apply in this case.
Ethical analysis is such a broad field that needs a lot of rational and critical thinking. It has not been easy for me handling this project, especially in the case study involving the juveniles Darren and Brian. Both of them being inmates, it was a bit difficult to distinguish how to handle them ethically without being corrupt by the culture of how intimates are handled. Coming up with the practical theory, called for a lot of critical thinking and professionalism, which was not easy in handling this case. It’s challenging to differentiate between personal views and the ethical view. In most cases, such as the juvenile case study in this project, the discipline officer may have been fast to consider applying his personal views.
This was a project that helped apply almost all the course materials that I had used in the previous lessons. It involved reading widely in other units such as sociology, psychology, and ethical theories. This helped in creating a clear direction on how to handle the case putting into consideration societal perspectives and psychological perspective. When these two are combined with the ethical theory of utilitarian, the case was easy to handle because all aspects were catered for, both social aspects and individual elements.
I learned a lot from this project mainly on how to handle different cases ethically making sure that I have considered both the surroundings and the affected individual. I have learned that cases are not just solved, but they are addressed in a way that prevents from happening again. In the future, I will make sure that I do not rush in applying personal views, but I will solely rely on the ethical analysis and handle issues ethically which more effective.
Classmate 1 Eric
In evaluating what I did well on the final project, I believe I properly addressed the rubric in each of the milestones. I attempted to provide enough resources to justify my positions presented. I felt that the final project was comprehensive.
One of the most difficult aspects of this project is that this is my final term in Southern New Hampshire University. Upon successfully completing this course, I will graduate with my undergraduate degree. Much like the typical course at SNHU, my BS is a milestone. It isn’t the end of the journey, rather it is a step towards an ultimate goal. I have been working to stay current on all course assignments, while juggling intense struggles at home. Adding into the mix is attempting to select my graduate program. When I embarked on my return to college, SNHU was one of a few offerings. The field of on-line colleges have significantly grown in the past couple of years. While I hope to remain at SNHU, economics is certainly factoring into decisions. It is ironic that a math course taken at SNHU has been the model that has made me evaluate fiscal responsibility over personal comfort.
Bringing the entire focus of the course together in week 7 was much like using individual blocks from the previous weeks. Each of the assignments built into a significant piece of work. Having served in Law Enforcement for 29 years, I have seen my share of ethics training over the decades. I found the Forum on Public Policy “Improving American Police Ethics Training: Focusing on Social Contract Theory and Constitutional Principles” by Monica Moll to be one of the best articles related to ethics I’ve read. I have shared this article with many on my supervisory team, in an effort to improve the service we provide our community.
Classmate 2 Sarah
I believe that the strongest area of my final paper was the portion where we identified specific ethical theories/non-consequentialist theories such as the duty-based approach and the fairness/justice approach (Thiroux & Krasemann, 2015). I was able to go back and take a look at my introduction to ethics textbook (philosophy class I took as a General Education requirement before they changed the requirements) and kick my memory about what I had learned previously.
As always, I struggle to master brevity. Why write one sentence when I can write one page? Part of this is a desire to meet every portion of the rubric and guidelines and end up writing a novel. Sometimes this can impact my grade negatively, but more often I think instructors recognize I am trying to meet every prompt of an assignment. Nonetheless, conciseness is something to definitely work on.
Really, I find every course to be a building block and a resource later. For this course I was able to look back at a number of criminal justice texts and jog my memory. This course seemed like a culmination of courses taken in criminal justice ethics, American politics, criminal law, courses on victims and psychopaths, and even the courses from my psychology degree. Every week, including for the final assignment, I would come across problems or ideas that have been touched upon in previous courses. That meant I could go back, re-read my own writings, re-read portions of textbooks (I think I used three old textbooks in my final project?) and then apply what the readings of this class for this week and formulate a response/paper. This is probably one of my favorite parts of school – being able to actually use the information I previously learned on new things/ideas.
I think that in order to be ethical or to have a consistent ethical code, you have to practice. Until we are in a context, such as a job, that has us doing it on a regular basis, these hypothetical scenarios are a good way to start building the ethical muscle. Basically, decisions we have to make later may require split-second decision making and we have to have some existing knowledge or experience to base it on (Thiroux & Krasemann, 2015). This is particularly true for law enforcement officers who cannot say, “hold on with your crisis, I must consult my textbook.” Building experience and academic knowledge helps enable us to make decisions that are logical and reasonable, and quick if need be.
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Responses
Classmate 1 Eric
In the post, Eric asserts that what he did well in the final project was to address each of the identified milestones. Eric also indicates that it was quite a daunting task to complete the project with all the required milestones.
(230 words)