1. You are completing an internship with a juvenile probation agency and truly have enjoyed the experience.
Although working with the kids is challenging, you see many rewards in the job, especially when you sense that
you are reaching a client and making a difference. Mr. Childers, the probation officer with whom you work, is
less optimistic about the kids and operates in a strictly by-the-book legalistic manner. He is burned out and
basically does his job without getting too involved. Although you respect him, you know you would approach
the clients differently if you were to be hired full-time.
One weekend, you are out with friends in a downstairs bar frequented by college students. To your surprise,
you see Sarah, a 16-year-old probationer, dancing. In watching her, you realize that she is drunk and, in fact, is
holding a beer and drinking it while she is dancing with a man who is obviously much older than she is. You go
over to her, and she angrily tells you to mind your own business and immediately leaves with the man. Later
she comes back into the bar and pleads with you to keep quiet. She is tearfully apologetic and tells you that
she already has had several violations of her probation and at the last hearing was told that if she has one
more violation, she will be sent to a juvenile detention center. You know that Sarah has been doing much better
in school and plans to graduate and even go to college. On Monday morning, you sit in Mr. Childers’ office.
What should you tell him? Use an ethical system to justify your answer
2. You are a manager of a retail store. You are given permission by the owner of the store to hire a fellow
classmate to help out. One day you see the classmate take some clothing from the store. When confronted by
you, the peer laughs it off and says the owner is insured, no one is hurt, and it was under $100. “Besides,” says
your acquaintance, “friends stick together, right?” What would you do? Use an ethical system to justify your
answer
3. You are a police officer assigned to the juvenile division. For the most part, you enjoy your job and believe
that you have sometimes even made a difference when the juvenile has listened to you and stayed out of
trouble (at least as far as you knew). One day you are told repeatedly by your captain to pick up a juvenile,
even though you don’t think there is any probable cause to do so. This is the third time you have been ordered
to pick him up and bring him into the station. You discover that the detectives are trying to get the juvenile to
become an informant because he is related to a suspected drug dealer. Should you participate in the attempt to
intimidate him or refuse to do so? Use an ethical system to justify your answer
4. There is a well-known minor criminal in your district. Everyone is aware that he is engaged in a variety of
crimes, including burglary, fencing, and drug dealing. However, you have been unable to make a case against
him. Now he is the victim of a crime—he reports that he is the victim of theft and that his neighbor stole his
riding lawnmower. How would you treat his case? Use an ethical system to justify your answer
5. You are a homicide investigator and are interrogating someone you believe picked up a 9-year-old in a
shopping mall, and then molested and murdered the girl. He is a registered sex offender, was in the area, and
although he doesn’t have any violence in his record, you believe he must have done it because there is no
other suspect who had the means, opportunity, and motive. You have some circumstantial evidence (he was
seen in a video following the child) but very little good physical evidence. You really need a confession to make
the case. You want to send this guy away for a long time. After several hours of getting nowhere, you have a
colleague come in with a file folder and pretend that the medical examiner had obtained fingerprints on the
body that matched the suspect’s. You tell him that he lost his chance to confess to a lesser crime because now
he is facing the death penalty. He says that he will confess to whatever you want him to if the death penalty is
taken off the table. Do you tell him what you did? Do you tell the prosecutor? Use an ethical system to justify
your answer