Juvenile probation

    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