crj 524
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Week Two Assignment
Shanice Ford
CRJ 524 Ethics in Criminal Justice
Dr. David DiBari
11/12/2023
Introduction
Arguments are a part of our life rather than in our personal or professional. Without
realizing we are using Fallacies. Fallacies are common mistakes in reasoning that will cause your
argument to lose its coherence. They can be irrelevant points or illegitimate arguments, and they
are typically recognized by lack of supporting evidence. (Fallacies-Purdue OWL-Purdue
University, n.d) The five different fallacies that I will discuss are hasty generalization, circular
argument, either/or, red herring, and ad hominem. I will apply these fallacies to our criminal
justice system and the impact it has on our professionalism, preparedness, and daily functions
aspects of the criminal justice system.
A hasty generalization is when you make a claim based on not having a lot of evidence. An
example of hasty generalization would be A black person who has had only two encounters with
police and both encounters are bad will assume that all police officers are bad. In the criminal
justice system, it can have an impact because if a cop is a doing a routine stop on that same
person, they can be hostile with the cop and a routine traffic stop can turn into something worse,
such as the cop returning the hostile attitude and an altercation can occur.
Circular Argument is just like its name when having an argument and no points are proven and
repeating the original statement completing a circle. If the conclusion and premise were reversed,
the statement would still be considered ‘’proven.’. In a circular argument, the premise either
explicitly or implicitly assumes that the conclusion is true rather than offering any supporting
evidence. (Murtoff,2023) An example in the criminal justice would be not allowing someone a
trial because they confess to a crime. If Paul said he, did it then it’s true because he confess.
There are many situations in our system where someone confesses to a crime but did not commit
the crime due to covering for someone or failing for police tactics. A lawyer should still take the
case and assume their client is innocent.
Either or fallacy is making a statement with two options and choosing only between those two
options that are stated. An example would be is “If you do not enforce the death penalty for
murder then that person will commit murder again. “While it could happen, a person could
commit murder again, there should be other options for you to choose from. In our criminal
justice system, each state has their own law in regarding the death penalty and it helps keep a
balance between state and federal.
Red herring fallacy is taking information that is not relevant to distract a person from the facts of
the statement. This fallacy is important in the criminal justice system.
In court a lawyer can
present evidence that is relevant to the case and trick the jury or mislead them can throw in
information that is relevant to the case. That is why it is important for the jury to be able to
recognize this tactic. If we can divert changes to be made in the system that have nothing to do
with the facts it could have negative consequences.
The last fallacy that I will discuss is the Ad hominem. This fallacy is a personal one, instead of
attacking a person’s views or statement, you attack them. This fallacy arises when you directly
attack someone’s membership in a group or institution, or you attack the person making the
argument or some aspect of them, without taking the time to address their argument or position
(Texas State University, n.d). An example in the criminal justice system would be to attack the
witness on the stand instead of addressing their position.
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Fallacies are important because to be able to put your evidence and claims into an illegitimate
argument. In the criminal justice system investigators, and almost every level of the system
should be able to identify and make valid points when presenting arguments or critical reasoning.
Resources
Fallacies-Purdue OWL-Purdue University. (n.d).
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/logic_in_argumentative_writing/f
allacies.html
Murtoff, J..(2023a, November 8). Circular argument| Definition, History, Examples. &Facts.
Encyclopedia Britannica.
Https://www.britannica.com/topic/circular-argument
Texas State University. (n.d). Ad hominem. https://www.txst.edu/philosophy/resources/fallacy-
definitions/ad-hominem.html