1. Is self-interest at all necessary or desirable for practitioners within the criminal justice field? Discuss several ways in which egoistic motivations might produce positive and negative effects in the following: (1) police officers, (2) district attorneys and prosecutors, (3) defense attorneys.
2. To what extent are you motivated to obey the law because of the existence of punishments for violating the law? To what extent does divine sanction or the expectation of divine reward or the expectation of divine reward motivate your behavior?
3. Psychopathic offenders are said to lack conscience. Examples of psychopathic offenders are individuals who demonstrate a callous disregard for the feelings or welfare of others; who are impulsive, manipulative, and deceitful; and who have a larger-than-life sense about themselves. One case of a (sexual) psychopathic offender was Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer tortured, mutilated, and killed a number of you men before having sexual intercourse with them. Eventually, he was caught by the police and sentenced to multiple life prison terms in Wisconsin. He was murdered by a fellow prisoner. Are persons like Dahmer capable of forming a conscience? If not, then how can we expect moral/ethical behavior from them?
