Ethics for the Forensic Criminologist

Abstract

Most fields of professional endeavor involve a code of ethics that dictates acceptable and unacceptable conduct of members of the profession. Medicine, psychology and psychiatry, and law, to name but a few, enjoy full and well defined codes of ethics that restrain members within those professions. What's more, these disciplines are well regulated, and to be a practitioner, one must meet certain educational and experiential criteria. By extension, any individual who wishes to ply his or her trade must not only meet these criteria, but must also subscribe to the relevant organization's code of ethics. Criminology, however, despite belonging to the broad class of disciplines within the social and behavioral sciences, isn't regulated at all. Despite a number of organizations around the world dedicated to the professionalization of criminology, none strictly regulates its members by mandating particular levels of education or experience. As a result, one can practice as a criminologist without having to be a member of any organization or having met any specific criteria. This also means that one needn't subscribe to a code of ethics of any organization, such as the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology, The British Society of Criminology, or the American Society of Criminology. While the British Society of Criminology's code specifically cites membership as implicit acceptance of the code,l an individual can still practice as a criminologist without having to belong to one of these groups, and by extension may not subscribe to a code of ethics.