Moral Injury, Ethical Challenges, and Turnover Intention: Insights from Two Studies

Policing inherently involves making challenging decisions with an ethical component. However, numerous models and frameworks can be used to facilitate ethical decision-making. When these frameworks clash in application, a sense of moral or ethical dissonance is created. This can lead to moral distress and moral injury. In this session, presenters describe how three frameworks (deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics) can be applied in policing, how contradictions can lead to moral injury, why ethics matters in law enforcement training, and how different ethical orientations relate to hot-button issues, like turnover.