Deontological and Ethical Dimensions of Professional Conduct of a Law Enforcement Officer
Abstract
Abstract. The article examines the relationship between the deontological and ethical dimensions of the professional conduct of a law enforcement officer in the context of contemporary transformations of public administration, which are accompanied by increasing demands for the quality of exercising public authority and the level of trust in institutions. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to overcome the limitations of existing approaches to explaining professional conduct, which tend to focus either on normatively prescribed requirements or on value orientations, while overlooking the mechanisms that ensure the transition from norms and beliefs to actual behavior. The aim of the article is to provide a theoretical substantiation of the interrelation between the deontological and ethical dimensions of the professional activity of a law enforcement officer, to identify their analytical limits, and to develop an approach to explaining the mechanisms underlying the formation of stable behavioral practices. The methodological framework of the study is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines the provisions of philosophy of law, applied ethics, public administration theory, and sociology. The study employs methods of theoretical analysis and synthesis, systemic and comparative analysis, conceptual modeling, and interpretation. The findings demonstrate that the deontological approach ensures normative clarity and predictability of professional conduct but does not explain the internal mechanisms of its implementation. At the same time, the ethical dimension reveals the significance of value orientation and conscious choice but does not guarantee their stable incorporation into behavior. It is substantiated that integrity, as an institutionally established criterion of proper conduct, does not exhaust its moral content and does not ensure its reproducibility in practice. The study argues for the expediency of considering professional conduct within the framework of an ethical infrastructure as a systemic formation that integrates normative, value-based, and behavioral components. The scientific novelty of the research lies in introducing the analytical concept of habitual personal self-regulation as a mechanism that ensures the long-term preservation of proper behavioral patterns, their predictability, and resilience to change across various professional situations. This concept makes it possible to explain the transition from normative prescriptions and ethical awareness to stable behavioral practice. The practical significance of the results lies in the possibility of applying them to improve approaches to the professional training of law enforcement officers, to develop the ethical infrastructure of professional activity, and to enhance the level of trust in law enforcement institutions as a factor of stability in the public security system.
Keywords: deontology; professional ethics; ethical infrastructure; habitual personal self-regulation; integrity; trust.
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References
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