The ethical considerations play significant role in the criminal justice. They are, however, central to the decisions that involve force, undue influence, and discretion in which people are required for making the moral judgments. The ethical considerations that need to be addressed within the field of the criminal justice include formation of the good practices based on the functional criminal justice, which is competent and capable enough to handle the ordinary criminal activities and offenses, ensuring the protection of the rights of humans. The law enforcement officials should work within the rules and regulations of the framework based on the law that ensures the protection of the civil rights and civil liberties of the accused and defendants, and he should be given right to free trail (Stephens & Scheb, 2012). Additionally, people associated with the criminal justice should act morally and they should use reason in order to decide an appropriate way of conduction their selves. The police should follow all the rules and regulations and the killing of innocent people without any proof or reason is not allowed ethically in any way (Gaines & Miller, 2012).
The ethical considerations that need to be considered for the successful prosecution of a case of terrorism include effective response of the criminal justice system regarding the terrorist acts. The criminal justice system should be capable of responding to the terrorist activities with the effectual and fair prosecution, investigations, and punishment. The criminal justice should have a complete and comprehensive framework for addressing and re-addressing the issues regarding terrorism. A legal framework is essential in the criminal justice system that increase the cooperation among the prosecutors, investigators, judges, and the officials associated with the counter-terrorism, so that teamwork can be ensured where everyone works by taking ethics, justice, and equality into consideration . However, the sensitive information regarding terrorism and the activities of terrorist should be used fairly, so the protection of the participants of a case of terrorism, sensitive sources of government, and collection methods can be ensured. The accused should be provided opportunity to say whatever he wants to say so that fair can be ensured.
Furthermore, many prosecution problems can arise when the case presented for trial if the investigator was unethical in their testimony or collection of evidence such as It becomes difficult to reach at the fact, and innocent may get punishment for the crime, which he has not committed. Further, this situation creates several ethical problems, which include failure of the lawyer to fulfill his/her responsibilities towards the client, legal system, and to his/her own interest in remaining as an upright individual. Further, if the state went ahead with the prosecution knowing that there were unethical issues with the collection of evidence, then the constitutional rights of the defendants are violated. This violation is because of the fact that prosecution has not effectively gathered the evidences regarding the case; the burden of proof in an ethical manner is associated with the prosecution, but ineffective performance of the prosecution can pave the way to the violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights. The rights of the defendant, which are violated in this case, include the right to the jury trial, right to adequate representation, the right to equal protection under the law, the right to an impartial jury trial, the right to be free from usual punishment, and the right to confront the witnesses.
Moreover, in the investigations relating to the crime of terrorism two methods are used which are:
- Reactive Methods
- Pro-active Methods
The reactive methods comprise of the methods of investigation in which standard procedures are applied after the crime related to terrorism, for example, when terrorist bombing has occurred. In this method secret detention, special investigation techniques, and surveillance are considered. Secret detention can be conducted in an unofficial as well as in official detention places. In the reactive methods special investigative techniques such as electronic, surveillance forms and secret operations are used in order to gather the information in such a way that the targeted person does not become attentive or alert, and it becomes possible to detect and investigate the offences. Moreover, the surveillance includes collecting and monitoring the information about a particular person. it also includes listening, and observing the movements and acts of that individual. Surveillance can be carried out with or without surveillance device, and it also include recording of the obtained information. Surveillance is, however, used for a purpose that is specifically defined. In the terrorism cases, the pro-active investigation is carried out in order to prevent an intensive attack from occurring (Dyson, 2014). A proactive investigation emphasize on the collection of the evidence, which proves or disproves the participation of the suspected person in the terrorist activity (Osterburg & Ward, 2014). However, in majority of the proactive investigations, the person has a criminal record. However, in order to cope with the terrorism, many institutions are working in different countries in order to gather the information about the terrorist groups. For example, in the United States, NCTC, i.e., The National Counter-Terrorism Centre is an agency that is working in order to collect and analyze the information regarding the suspected people and terrorist groups.
References
Dyson, William E. (2014). Terrorism: An Investigator's Handbook. Routledge, New York
Gaines, L., & Miller, R. (2012). Criminal Justice in Action. Nelson Education Limited, Canada
Osterburg, James W., & Ward, Richard H. (2014). Criminal Investigation: A Method for Reconstructing the Past. Routledge, New York
Stephens, Otis H., & Scheb, John M. (2012). American Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Liberties. Nelson Education Limited, Canada
