Professional Dishonesty - Part One

As I mentioned last Friday (April 27), an article written in 1963 not only had a significant impact on my development as a youth advocate, but it remains surprisingly relevant today. The article; The Impact of Professional Dishonesty on Behavior of Disturbed Adolescents by S. L. Halleck; begins by pointing out that when dishonesty in a professional relationship is usually discussed, the focus is on dishonesty from the client to the professional. When the paper was written Halleck was responding to a lack of information concerning dishonesty in the opposite direction. I’d like to report that there has been significant expansion on his work since the ‘60’s but – since we’re being honest – I really haven’t found much.

Perhaps the reason is that there has been an increased emphasis on professional ethics. We really don’t need to focus on the impact of professional dishonesty if we agree that such behavior is unethical and work to keep dishonesty out of our behavior toward clients. But, in my opinion, this is where Halleck makes his greatest contribution. The professional dishonesty he is referring to is not the blatant, malicious form of manipulating the truth that we all should be able to agree is unethical behavior. Instead, Halleck describes more subtle forms of dishonesty; simple representations that we make to young people that may not be entirely true. It reminds me of a quote attributed to Mark Twain: “It’s not what people don’t know that scares me; it’s what they know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Halleck highlights seven specific areas where adult professionals are not always entirely honest when dealing with adolescents. His seven areas may not be an exhaustive list, but reviewing them helps develop an awareness of how dishonesty can sometimes enter into our approach unless we remain scrupulously on guard. Tomorrow I’ll share a few of the areas Halleck identified.