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Police Ethics: The Corruption of Noble Cause

NCJ Number
180454
Author(s)
John P. Crank; Michael A. Caldero
Date Published
2000
Length
279 pages
Annotation
This book provides a way of thinking about police ethical dilemmas and a way for police officers to think ethically about their work.
Abstract
Noble-cause corruption is corruption committed in the name of good ends. The book discusses how to think about it, its different forms, what it can do to street cops, how it affects police administrators and police departments, and how police can protect themselves against it. The book is divided into four sections: Accountability and the Ethics of Noble Cause, Noble-Cause Corruption, The Means-Ends Dilemma and Ethics for the Twenty-first Century. The four sections comprise 12 chapters: (1) Accountability: Why We Teach Ethics; (2) Framing the Ethical Problem; (3) Measuring Cops’ Values; (4) From Economics to Noble-Cause Corruption; (5) Values, Hiring, and Early Organizational Experiences; (6) Stress, Accountability, and the Noble Cause; (7) Ethics and the Means-Ends Dilemma; (8) Police Culture, Ends Orientation, and Noble-Cause Corruption; (9) Ethics in the Age of Community Policing; (10) The Craft of Public Order: A Vision for the Twenty-first Century; (11) Recommendations; and (12) Conclusion: The Noble Cause. Figures, notes, bibliography, glossary, indexes