4-7 ETHICAL SCENARIO
Two officers are confronted with an arrest/no-arrest decision for the misdemeanor crime of disturbing the peace. A fraternity party has gone on into the night—past midnight—and the frat boys have been warned about cutting down the noise several times. In making their decision, the officers are—as we have pointed out above—making moral judgments. They are deciding who “deserves” to go to jail and who does not. One officer suggests that because it is now after midnight, and because those responsible have been warned earlier, the party should have been shut down long ago. He believes that the fraternity leaders should be cited. The other officer suggests that “this is a college town” and that a party that “only” goes just past midnight is not some-thing that should be sanctioned in such a town. Her logic is that “if people live in a college town, they should expect to endure such parties.”
How should this dilemma be decided?
What criteria should be utilized to determine whether or not party leaders “deserve” to be cited?
In debating their decision, the two officers utilize their own personal notions of right and wrong and of morality. Is this right? Is it just?
Is there any definitive way to make such a decision—some objective way of determining what the law should do about it—or is it just a case-by-case decision about which the two officers will/should/must argue?
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