For my senior research, I’m doing ethnographic observation of Memphis police officers. During one of my ride-alongs on patrol, the officer pulled over a car with a loose license plate because missing bolts can indicate hastily switched tags. Not only did the plate belong to another car, but the car in question did not belong to the driver, the driver had an expired license, and had several missed court dates and overdue fines on her record. The woman could have easily been arrested on any one of these counts, and her position was severely worsened by having so many violations at once. The cop did not arrest the girl. Instead, she used her own judgment and ethical positioning to calculate the situation. The citizen was an eighteen-year old mother of two on her way home from Bridges (a community center that helps secure employment). According to the girl, she had borrowed the car to get to the center because she had no car of her own, and she borrowed the plates because the cars’ were out of date. She couldn’t pay her fines or attend court because she lacked transportation, decent employment, and time. Not only did the officer believe the girl’s story, but she gave her advice on how to get the court to drop her charges. Afterwards, I asked the officer why she let go someone who was obviously breaking several important laws. The officer replied that there was no good in arresting the girl. The charges were circumstantial, brought on in many cases by economic and social oppressions that are nearly impossible to avoid. Arresting the girl, the officer said, would only make her situation worse. Paying fines was simply money taken away from food and rent, and the girl had children to care for. The charges against the girl were not endangering the public, so letting her go was an act mercy to someone in a rough situation.
This incident was one of several I observed where officers used a good deal of personal reasoning to judge a case where adherence to strict law technically could call for an arrest. This seems like the perfect example of a middle ground between justice and care ethics. The officer, and others like her, has the freedom to use individual discretion while examining a case. In this example, the officer obviously had a basis in justice ethics, where the law is adhered to because it is always right. The law, however, gave the officer the chance to use care ethics by imagining the girl’s situation and understanding that life isn’t always in terms of right and wrong. In Gilligan’s theory, it follows that the officer (a woman) would ultimately result to care ethics because of her gender. It is in her profession, however, that justice ethics are required as well. Using this case, I can understand the claim brought up in Benhabib’s work that locates a possible source of the supposed gender divide of ethics in the realm of spheres rather than gender. Benhabib’s article traces the ethical separation to public and private spheres, stating that because men have traditionally owned the public sphere (one situated in law and rules) and women the private sphere (nature, relationships), ethics have become inextricably tied to the gender/sex system. I hope that the female officer I rode with is an example of what can happen when women enter the workforce and tie our ethical divide together, a connection both authors we’re reading imply is a natural and healthy solution to our binary reality.
Really interesting post Armanda! I wish that more people that are in governmental positions would analyze the situation like the female officer did. There are many reasons behind each situation so we need to implement care ethics as well as justice. I don't know if there is anything like just car ethics but if it is possible then the female officer demonstrated such a concept. The female officer cared about the situation without putting her own biases into her analysis but by through applying just reasoning. We need more people, men and women both in the public sphere, to implement care and justice ways of moral reasoning for a more complete analysis of any situation to determine a fair judgement.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that is so much an example of care ethics as it is Utilitarianism. Care ethics involves relationships one has with another, and since the Cop did not know this person i would say that her decision was a Utilitarian one. The amount of hassle and problems would only increase if she brought that woman in, so she let her go.
ReplyDeleteI would hope that not just women in the workplace would bring more notions of care ethics in the workplace, but hopefully males could too. Although as Jared points out this seem utilitarian because she was trying to calculate the greatest good, it was important that she temporarily displaced herself and assumed the role of the woman pulled over, as she could imagine herself in the same situation, which would emit more of care ethics.
ReplyDeleteJared- as I understand it, care ethics does not require personal relationships, but rather an understanding of others at a personal level and the ability to think of others as people like ourselves, or a "concrete other". The reading for tomorrow by Held brings up policing and its relation to care ethics and might explain it better than I do. The officer, in my opinion, was definitely not trying to avoid "hassle," in fact she wrote two tickets and spent about an hour completing the case. I'm not familiar with utilitarian ethics, but we may be dealing with a little of both. There is definitely a sense of personal understanding in my example, so I still hold that it's care ethics.
ReplyDeleteCal- I definitely have seen care ethics from male officers as well.