Introduction
No profession in the world can be without its code of ethics. According to Newburn (2000, p. 588), ethics are, “…a set of beliefs, values and standards by which people regulate their conduct.” This means that ethics of homicide investigation are a set of values and standards that the investigators must put in consideration in order to facilitate the process of investigation (Page, 2005). This paper will therefore identify the ethics specified for investigation of homicide and the way problems facing these ethical considerations could be minimized, the implication of unethical investigation on prosecution and finally identify those ethical issues directly related to the prosecutor.
The ethics
All investigators are bound by their ethics to respect human rights when in the process of homicide investigation. No information shall be gathered through torture and other inhumane ways. In addition, the liberty of a suspect shall be respected. This liberty can only be removed by incarceration or detention in accordance with the law. Article 6 gives suspects a guarantee for a fair and public trial. This therefore points out that investigation shall be done in a professional and accurate way. Negligence in investigation could mean an infringement of article six. The investigator must respect a suspect’s privacy and family life. Interference of these two could mean a breach of ethical rules. Furthermore, an investigator must be free from bias and should be open minded so that a fair trial can be achieved. Finally, information concerning the suspect should only be revealed to people concerned with the case. With these ethical standards adhered to, the level of accuracy of investigation outcomes will be higher (Deslich, 2005, p.126: Fisher, 2004, p. 82).
However, many investigators face challenges that lead them to breach these ethical considerations in order to achieve relevant information. The temptations that exist in this profession are very strong causing many investigators of homicide to fail to follow the stipulated codes of ethics. This has negative implications. To be precise, failure to apply ethical considerations during investigation process can lead to prosecution problems at the later stages of justice dispensation (Marotta, 2009).
Challenges to ethics
There are a number of reasons that render ethical considerations important. As mentioned earlier in the paper, article 6 stipulates that no person shall be prosecuted without a fair and public trial. In addition, it says that every suspect shall remain innocent until proven guilty. Unethical investigations can lead to detention of an innocent person who will be tried and incarcerated unfairly due to inaccurate information supplied by the investigation. The prosecution will therefore falsely convict an innocent person. This is to say that unethical investigation leads to conviction of innocent people by the prosecution (Genge, 2002).
Repercussion of unethical procedure
Can there be a way of reducing the problems associated with unethical approaches to investigation by homicide investigators? The answer is yes. Ethical values cannot be difficult to infiltrate in an investigator’s brain. By strictly following the formal rules of the job and the human rights stipulations, ethics will automatically incorporate in the whole process. Accordingly, to avoid problems associated with ethics, an investigator must learn to abide by the laws, his profession’s codes of conduct and finally respect human rights. These are the keys to an appropriate investigative conduct. In addition, ethical leadership can be another solution to this problem. Coupled up with effective leadership, an organization can achieve outstanding professional standards by ensuring that all rules are taken account of and that informal processes are managed in an active way within the organization (ambivalent Imbroglio, 2005).
Effect to prosecution
According to Baldwin (2009), some of these ethical issues are fundamental not only to the investigator but also to the prosecutor. The two most important of these are that an investigator must be professional and accurate when dealing with a case while the second one is that investigators must not tackle a case with a biased mind. These two are very important to the prosecution because they form the basis from which facts that are used during trial are derived. Any form of negligence in these two could lead to false facts that would translate to conviction of an innocent person (Newburn, 2005, p. 591).
Conclusion
In conclusion, investigators must learn to adhere to ethical rules so that they achieve outstanding professional standards. This can be achieved by a collective effort between the management and the individual investigators. Failure to observe this would result in unfair prosecutions.
Reference List
Ambivalent Imbroglio. (2005). Criminal investigation ethics.
Baldwin, H. (2009). Crime Scene Processing Protocol. Web.
Deslich, B. (2005). Forensic Science for High School. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt
Fisher, Barry. (2004). Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press
Genge, N.E. (2002). The Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation. New York: Ballantine Books,
Marotta, S. (2009). The Ethics Behind Fighting Terrorism. Web.
Newburn, T. (2000). Handbook of criminal investigation. Devon: Willan Publishers
Page, D. (2005). Crime scene ethics: Take it or leave it. Web.