Discussion topic/Question

Your life is somewhere in a database

Many TV shows depict law enforcement personnel accessing readily accessible databases that contain all types of records about individuals -records about everything from address to telephone records to finances, insurance, and criminal history. The information you share with your bank, doctor, insurance agent, the TSA, ancestry kit companies, and on social media can make your life an open book. Here are some questions to address as you reflect on this: 1. Are you comfortable with giving away some of your privacy for increased security? Why or why not? How far would you let the government go in examining people's private lives? 2. How much access should we have to certain aspects of others' private lives? For example, should States share criminal databases? But should a database of people paroled or released for crimes be made public? Why or why not?

Peer's Discussion Post

Hello,

John Adams, a founding father, once proclaimed, "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."^[1]Morality and virtue are the foundation of our republic and necessary for a society to be free. Virtue is an inner commitment and voluntary outward obedience to principles of truth and moral law. Private virtue is the character to govern oneself according to moral law at all times. Public virtue is the character to voluntarily sacrifice or subjugate personal wants for the greater good of other individuals or the community. Specific moral virtues include charity, justice, courage, temperance, reverence, prudence, and honesty. These virtues are the moral fiber and moving force to act in accordance with wisdom. Our scholars embrace these virtues and seek to incorporate them in the John Adams Academy community through which these virtues are cultivated and practiced.

The privacy versus security issue is a delicate balance, and the comfort level depends on the amount of data collected, its purpose, and how it is safeguarded. While some level of surveillance and data sharing may be necessary for national security and law enforcement, it must be reasonable, justified, and subject to checks and balances. The state's power to seize personal effects should be limited to reasonable force, such as the need for a warrant to search individuals in connection with a crime rather than through blanket surveillance. This emphasis on sensible and justified surveillance should reassure the public about protecting their rights.

Access to Private Information

Others should have no access to people's lives, and only appropriate authorities should be allowed to interfere in people's lives to protect the public. For example, sharing criminal databases between states is a good way to ensure that cooperation between different jurisdictions is enhanced and dangerous individuals do not slip through the cracks. However, creating a publicly available list of those paroled or released is problematic from an ethical standpoint. While it is essential to offer clarity to communities, it also has the potential to stigmatize people, lead to discrimination, and make it harder for them to reenter society. A reasonable measure would be to allow access to the list to the police and other appropriate authorities while at the same time giving former offenders a chance to start over without being harmed.

A database of people who have been paroled or released from prison can be made accessible for reasonable purposes such as public safety, transparency, and deterrence of future crimes. First of all, public safety is the most critical aspect. The community has a right to know if people with a history of serious crimes, such as violent offenses or felonies, live in the area. This way, people can be cautious, especially if they have someone in the house who needs care, such as a child or an older adult. Third, openness in the justice system fosters the relationship between the public and the police. When people know who is getting released and under what conditions, they are more likely to have confidence that the system can be implemented to account for its actions. It makes the communities believe these people are supervised and required to meet certain conditions. In addition, the availability of this information can reduce crime because people who are released on parole will not want to re-offend. If they know that their status is readily available to the public, they may have a set tolerance that will lead them to adhere to the parole conditions that have been set for them. It is also helpful for employers and landlords to make decisions and for the rehabilitated people to explain themselves and show how they have changed. Last, there is a precedent for this approach - for example, sex offender registries are available to the public to protect the communities. Although a more extensive release database should be used cautiously, the concept is still the same - people have a right to know about potential environmental dangers. However, there should be some restrictions and procedures to avoid harming people who have changed their lives and want to become law-abiding citizens. Not all crimes should be imprinted in the public's record, and there has to be a way for people to restart if they have proven themselves to be reformatted. The idea is to balance the public's right to know and the need not to punish a person indefinitely through such a database.

References:

John Adams Academy. (2025). #2 - Public and Private Virtue - Ten Core Values. John Adams Academies, Inc. Retrieved February 4, 2025, from https://www.johnadamsacademy.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2003858&type=d&pREC_ID=2094472

Norenzayan, A., & Shariff, A. F. (2008). The origin and evolution of religions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(8), 293-296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.05.010

Daly, M., & Wilson, M. (1988). Evolutionary social psychology and the study of human violence. University of Toronto Press.

Haynes, C. C. (2016). The secular outlook: In defense of moral and political secularism. Springer.

Zappe, Florian. (2018). The Other Exceptionalism: A Transnational Perspective on Atheism in America.Polish Journal for American Studies: Yearbook of the Polish Association for American Studies,12, 75-88.

Respond to the "Peer's Discussion Post" above in not more than three paragraphs, agree or disagree, your responds must be supported byrelevant information. Prove the point you are making by a) citingexternal research, b) citing readings from the class content, or c) providing examples or personal experiences that are relevant and support your position on the topic. It is always better to begin your reflection on the topic by doing some research/reading, either a) or b) or both, before considering personal experience. Ask a question to further the discussion.