____________ ethics determine what people ought to do and defines moral duties based on ethical systems or other means of analysis.

____________ ethics determine what people ought to do and defines moral duties based on ethical systems or other means of analysis.

• A. Applied
• B. Normative
• C. Professional
• D. Conventional

Answer: (B)

Normative ethics is the branch that asks what people ought to do and defines moral duties by appealing to ethical systems or analyses. It provides frameworks—such as utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics—that prescribe right conduct and give reasons for why certain actions are required or prohibited. In criminal justice, normative ethics guides decisions about how to treat others, what duties professionals owe, and what counts as just or unjust action, beyond what is merely customary or practiced. Key contrasts help clarify why this fits best: applied ethics uses normative theories to address specific issues, professional ethics concerns the codes and obligations tied to a particular field, and conventional ethics centers on social norms rather than formal moral theories. Thus, normative ethics directly addresses not just what people do, but what they ought to do and why their duties matter.

Normative ethics is the branch that asks what people ought to do and defines moral duties by appealing to ethical systems or analyses. It provides frameworks—such as utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics—that prescribe right conduct and give reasons for why certain actions are required or prohibited. In criminal justice, normative ethics guides decisions about how to treat others, what duties professionals owe, and what counts as just or unjust action, beyond what is merely customary or practiced.

Key contrasts help clarify why this fits best: applied ethics uses normative theories to address specific issues, professional ethics concerns the codes and obligations tied to a particular field, and conventional ethics centers on social norms rather than formal moral theories. Thus, normative ethics directly addresses not just what people do, but what they ought to do and why their duties matter.