Ethics of Undercover Investigations-5.docx Ethics of Undercover Investigations Departm

Ethics of Undercover Investigations-5.docx    Ethics of Undercover Investigations  Department of Criminal Justice, Saint Leo University  CRJ530: Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice  Abstract  Undercover investigations conducted by law enforcements comes with many factors and ethical dilemmas. The end goal and purpose of undercover investigations is to seek justice. Undercover investigations involve the infiltration and investigation of possible criminal activity that regular police officers have no means of access to unless they disguise themselves as part of that community where the criminal activity is taking place. For this type of investigation, it requires the undercover agent or officer and division to do their thorough research. This thorough research requires knowledge of the demographic and type of community they will be involved with. The undercover officer will also need to make sure they gain the trust of the suspects they are investigating, which will not be easy and will take time to earn. Being accepted in these criminal circles without suspicions from the suspects will take meticulous work and will involve these undercover agents/officers to participate in some prohibited criminal activity such as drug usage. Based on the scenario presented, this paper will address whether it is ethical to engage in criminal activity while conducting undercover investigations.  Undercover Investigations  Conventional police investigation is nowhere close to undercover police investigation. One of the key distinctions bet