Did the police officers recognize that they had a code of ethics separate from the morality of other people?

Some occupations develop their own “code of ethics.” When any occupation develops a “code of ethics”
it is a hint that people in that occupation do things which other people may regard as immoral. There are
military “codes” and even separate military justice systems because people in the military kill other
people in various ways. Ordinarily it is considered wrong to kill people. Lawyers develop their own “code
of ethics” because they do things which other people may regard as immoral, such as, defending guilty
persons, not revealing when they know that someone is really guilty of a crime, engaging in actions which
may be legal but would be considered unjust by others, etc. Doctors have a code of ethics because they
also do things which other people may regard as immoral, such as, lying to patients who are dying,
performing abortions, not being willing to testify about the medical malpractice of other doctors, etc.

Westley seems to have stumbled onto the idea that police also develop their own code of morality. He did
not refer to any official code of ethics subscribed to by police, although such codes do exist. Instead he
used his own observations and interviews to construct the code of ethics followed by the police officers in
his study.
The book is “Criminal Justice Masterworks” by Robert A. Panzarella and Daniel O’Neal Vona
Please
answer these questions in the form of an essay
Questions:
1. Did the police officers recognize that they had a code of ethics separate from the morality of other
people?
2. Did all of the police officers agree to this code of ethics?
3. Did they expect other people to agree with their code of ethics?
4. Did officers freely accept this code of ethics or did they accept it under compulsion?
5. Why was so much stress put on secrecy?
6. Did their code of ethics enable the police officers to really see themselves as good people?
7. Why were there such strong reactions to little acts of kindness to other people?
8. Did their code of morality enable these police officers to be morally certain about their actions or
did it create moral confusion in their minds?
9. What did Westley mean by “legitimations”? Did he think that the various legitimations were
valid?
10. According to Westley, where and why did these police officers enforce the law?

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