Protection of Individual Rights

The Pragmatist believe that the purpose of the law does not depend upon a collective notion of morality.  The law may in fact need moral backing, but the validity of law is not dependent upon morality.  In fact, it may be possible to have a legal law that is immoral.  Legal validity and morality are separate processes for the Pragmatist. 

The purpose of the law for the Pragmatist is to protect the rights of individuals.  These are the common rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and may include other rights grated universally to all of mankind.  This affects the Pragmatist's concept of Discretion Within the Law.  The Criminal Justice professional is expected by the Pragmatist to be forced to use personal judgment to make a moral decision in a legal environment.  It is the belief of the Pragmatist that a personal judgment in this professional environment is going to succeed better than trying to adhere to a policy or a law that was not designed to adjust the situation encountered by the poice and the citiizen.

Policing and the Protection of Individual Rights

          Protection of Individual rights leads to another conclusion about the role of law enforcement in society.  Probably in every Criminal Justice educational program in the country there has been at least one instructor who attempted to teach Criminal Procedure for the purposes of teaching young aspiring police officers how to get around the Fourth Amendment.  The Fourth Amendment guarantees individual rights and police seemingly must be taught how to get around these rights for the safety and protection of society.  The Pragmatist must rebel at this cause. Police should be assisting in the protection of individual rights while protecting society.  People need police protection when individual rights have been violated.  Continuing to violate individual rights makes police an adversary of the people fostering a police culture that is contrary to effective law enforcement in a democratic society.