A Study on Moral Reasoning among Indian Police officers

Objectives: The aim of this research is to find out the moral reasoning levels of a sample of police officers in the North Zone in Tamil Nadu. Methods/Analysis: A descriptive research study has been used and the researcher used convenience sampling. The research instrument used is DIT2, the defining issues test 2. DIT2 instrument has been scored by the center for ethical development, University of Alabama. Findings: The respondents were found to be in the Maintaining Norms stage of moral reasoning. The police officers didn’t have high score of moral reasoning as indicated by the poor N2 scores. Police officers are not using higher moral reasoning in their profession. There is an urgent need for training the police officers in facing moral dilemmas with higher levels of moral reasoning. This would provide inner satisfaction to the officer and help mould the society into having higher standards of ethics. Novelty/Improvement: The research can be conducted by measuring the moral reasoning levels prior to a training program on ethics and post training program.