Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Ethics Playing Cards
Copyright © 2025 Compass Ethics
A
What types of culturally acceptable but illegal behaviours might you encounter? What can, and what should be challenged?
Case Studies
- FGM is practiced in some parts of the world and is defended by some as culturally acceptable. How do you deal with a mother who wishes her daughters to undergo the procedure because she is worried they will not find a husband otherwise?
- How do you deal with a strongly patriarchal family in which it is clear that controlling or coercive behaviour is being directed towards certain family members?
Discussion
You clearly don’t have to agree with everyone else’s views all the time. Attitudes change over time or can be very different based on culture and background. But how accommodating do you need to be with someone whose views on race, gender and gender roles, language, race, politics etc. you find distasteful?
Ethical Relativism: Ethical relativism warns us not to assume that all of our own cultural standards are based on an objective standard. Some, maybe many, of our own practices are actually peculiar to our society and have more to do with tradition and custom than actual ethical values. Breastfeeding in public is perfectly acceptable in some countries but considered scandalous in others. Objectively, the act is neither right nor wrong and it is difficult to see on rational grounds how one could judge between them except on cultural grounds. Ethical relativism reminds us that our ethical views can simply represent the prejudices of our own culture through cultural conditioning. This might make us more open to accepting criticism of our own values rather than automatically resisting such challenges.
- However, some culturally accepted practices elsewhere in the world are absolutely prohibited by UK law and must be treated as such. It is also worth remembering that just because some things take place in other countries doesn’t mean that they are actually considered right there either – often there are behaviours that happen frequently despite what the law says showing that they also know those activities to be wrong but some do them anyway. Officers have a duty to safeguard everyone, including women and girls, which means that tackling FGM is an integral part of their role. They must take effective action to do so, without allowing themselves to be inhibited by fear of doing or saying the wrong thing or being accused of being racist. Effective action means making potential victims safe, investigating offences, and bringing offenders to justice.
- In the UK there exists Safeguarding Risk Assessment Guidance, for example, the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) risk assessment (see link).
- A connected challenge is how to deal with situations where you believe a crime will be committed against a UK citizen, but that crime will take place outside of the UK.
- Who do you know in your force / wider network who better understands that community compared to you and direct colleagues involved in making the assessments? Can their proximity to the parties (such as in case of coercion) be used to explore different perspectives if the parties involved are otherwise resistant to complying with you because you don’t understand their cultural practices?