evidence to achieve a believed just outcome, which is referred to as noble cause corruption (Pyman et al, 2012: 27). There are differences between misconduct and corruption. Police misconduct can be defined as performing an act or an omission committed by an individual police officer or entire police agency that abuses the legal rules (whether federal, criminal civil statutes or internal rules within police agencies) (Ivković, 2005b: 17). An example of an act committed by a police officer or police agency that they are not supposed to do includes planting
conditions of corruption or challenge the culture from the top level. Cultural drivers These economic and political categories mainly focus on state corruption, but institutional forms of corruption can be unveiled when analysing the literature on police corruption. This category on cultural dynamics is divided into several sub-categories to discuss what police work entails in relation to the police mandate, police discretion, police organisational culture, noble cause corruption and post-conflict policing. Moreover, socialisation that explains police behaviour
cop for the member of the public, covert surveillance, turning victims into witnesses and the financial investigation of officers are all obvious avenues to address this commonplace scourge. The existence of traffic cops on the take is an institutional choice . The question is why is nothing done against such a simple and solvable crime? Noble cause corruption But first, we need to describe another form of corruption that afflicts the police specifically; the malaise of ‘noble cause’ corruption. One of this book’s authors was in Africa a few years ago and
Kleinig, 2005), a hypothetical scenario that involves a potentially catastrophic consequence. Someone has hidden a bomb and we are asked to consider what is permissible in ascertaining the whereabouts of the bomb in order to avert considerable loss of life. • Noble cause corruption (see Delattre, 2011, pp.207–34) relates to police wrongdoings that are motivated by just intentions or, put another way, where police use corrupt and/or illegal methods to achieve just aims. • Dirty Harry scenarios (see Klockars, 1980) relate to the series of films starring Clint
outcome, which is referred to as noble cause corruption. In other words, police officers may exercise their moral judgement to anticipate arrests, due to moral and justified values, by bending some rules for an alleged noble cause (Pyman et al, 2012: 27). As part of divisional advantage, police solidarity may be high, which may prevent whistle-blowing against corrupt colleagues to protect a department (Miller, 2003). Police discretion and the nature of police work can also influence how choices are made regarding performing an action or inaction for particular
corrupt officers with new recruits to fight the insurgency for little remuneration. Second, the sense of mission becomes unclear due to several internationally led police reform initiatives and the lack of desire to fight for the state’s new internationally driven quasi-democratic regime. The concept of noble cause corruption explains police behaviour. To specify, police officers may bend the rules to fulfil a noble cause with brutality, fabrication of evidence or perjury (Miller, 2017: 90). There is a ‘sense of mission’ as ‘the thin blue line’ to protect victims
culture is followed by a critical examination of noble cause corruption that is not entirely evident in the context of the Afghan police, particularly at the lower levels. Corruption as a means of social contract There are cultural, religious and customary inferences with bribery and gift giving. In Afghanistan, daily bribery and the provision of a small gift is a recurrent means of social contract and is offered as an expression of gratitude to accelerate a basic service or transaction between the bribe giver and bribe taker: typically, a civil servant, police
Based on unprecedented empirical research conducted with lower levels of the Afghan police, this unique study assesses how institutional legacy and external intervention, from countries including the UK and the US, have shaped the structural conditions of corruption in the police force and the state.
Taking a social constructivist approach, the book combines an in-depth analysis of internal political, cultural and economic drivers with references to several regime changes affecting policing and security, from the Soviet occupation and Mujahidin militias to Taliban religious police.
Crossing disciplinary boundaries, Singh offers an invaluable contribution to the literature and to anti-corruption policy in developing and conflict-affected societies.
close links to organised crime and the police are plainly the regulators of the corruption. • Noble cause corruption, which represents activities where officers rationalise that to secure a conviction they ‘must’ bend the rules; such activities are driven by a determination to achieve results. In such cases, officers have been known to falsify statements, interfere with evidence, pressurise suspects to give false confessions and lie in court. In high-profile cases, such behaviour is often justified by the intense pressure on officers to secure a conviction
With debate about police ethics intensifying, this stimulating book considers afresh the fundamental role of officers and their relations with society.
• It is a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to ethical policing, taking a moral philosophical perspective to the evidence base and literature on the subject.
• Leading contemporary thinker Dominic Wood tackles the ethical issues of policing as a matter of compliance and discipline and reviews them in the context of contemporary challenges in policing and the wider criminal justice framework.
• From the parameters of moral policing to the role of human rights and to embedding ethics within police operations, this is a thorough overview of the subject of police ethics and legitimacy, and a springboard for further research and analysis.
A timely contribution to discussions about the police and their legitimacy, this is essential reading for all those studying, teaching and leading the profession.
