Moral Injury as a Challenge in a Value-Driven Profession: Insights from Ethics for the Education and Training of Police Agents.

Beschreibung: Police and law enforcement agents in their professional work can, at times, face and experience situations which put them at risk of suffering from moral distress and moral injury. Moral distress and moral injury result from the discrepancy of one’s moral norms and values, on the one hand, and the organisational policy that a police and law enforcement agent has to implement, or the actual professional conduct he or she is performing, on the other hand. For example, a police officer using force to protect him or herself (or others), or being unable to help when arriving at an accident, crime scene, or in a conflict situation. In this chapter, the authors first explore moral distress and moral injury from an ethical perspective. Then, since the concepts of moral conflict and moral dilemma are key to understanding moral injury, they are explained from a normative point of view. A brief exploration of the (philosophical) concept of “conscience” follows. The second focus of the chapter is on the role of ethics, and particularly ethics education, in police conflict management and use-of-force training. One approach as to how ethical theories, traditions, and insights can help to frame moral conflicts and dilemmas is presented. The potential role of ethics in the prevention and healing of moral suffering is sketched. It is argued that—even basic—knowledge of ethical theories and recognising the underlying dimensions of moral conflicts and dilemmas can help one to better understand professional conduct and to deal with different layers of responsibility for the outcome of (in)actions. This understanding is important for reflecting on individual professional conduct—but also for police organisations to better deal with the challenges of moral stress and injury and support for their officers and agents.

Schlagworte:Ethics, moral conflict, moral stress, dilemma, conscience

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