Ethics

Ethics
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A Public servant is a professional that is either appointed or elected and holds a government job or office. The job of a public servant entails the pursuit of the public good. The jobs of public servants include police, defense attorneys, correctional officers, judges, prosecutors and legislators among others. The services offered by public servants involve handling ethical situations on a daily basis. It is therefore pertinent for a public servant to be ethically sensitive and possess high moral standards. To ensure sensitivity to ethical issues, public servants should be guided by the following principles of the code of conduct. The first code is that they should fulfill their obligations with integrity and professionalism. The second code is that they should perform their duties efficiently, honestly and faithfully with respect to their colleagues and the public. Thirdly, they should not bring disrepute to the office they serve through their private undertakings (Pollock, 2014, p6). 
When considering judgment under criminal justice professional ethics, there are four elements used in specifying the various types of behaviors. The first element is the act. The point of concern here is the act such as stealing, mal-nce, and harassment. The second element is the human act. Here the ethical and moral judgment is based on human behavior. The third element is free will. This means that the behavior considered is that that which stems from free will.

The fourth element is the effect on others. Moral behavior is of concern to the extent to which it affects others (Pollock, 2014, p11). 
The young, mentally insane and people whose actions have been coerced are some of the groups that are traditionally exempt from legal and moral culpability. This is because moral culpability is linked to mens rea which is a major requirement in criminal liability. To establish liability, one must prove the guilty intent to commit an act. Illness can cause temporary mental insanity. A mother suffering postnatal depression would not be held liable for killing an infant because she is assumed not to be in her right mind. A young boy of age 10 would also not be held liable for the crime of rape because he is assumed not to be capable of carnal knowledge. It is the same case for people that are coerced to commit crimes. In such instances, duress is considered an acceptable defense since one will not have acted out of free will (McCartney & Parent, 2017).
References
Pollock, J. M. (2014). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Nelson Education.
McCartney, S., & Parent, R. (2017). Ethics in Law Enforcement Ethics in Law Enforcement. Creative Commons Attribution. Chapter 8.