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Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance pp 1–9Cite as

Noble Cause Corruption and Task-Related Rule-Breaking Behavior

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Synonyms

Dirty hands; Integrity violation; Noble cause corruption; State crime; Task-related rule-breaking behavior; White-collar crime

Definitions

Noble cause corruption: “breaking fundamental laws, not for personal gain, but for a purpose that appeals to our basic moral sensibilities” (Delattre 2011, p. 211).

Task-related rule-breaking behavior: “police officers breaking laws or formal internal rules in support of performing their lawful task” (Van Halderen and Kolthoff nd).

Introduction

Noble cause corruption is a concept well known in police studies. It refers to rule violations by police officers for “just” causes. Although the concept received scholarly attention for over several decades, the core features of noble cause corruption have remained fairly unclear. This vagueness appears to have hampered theoretical development and empirical assessment of the phenomenon. Task-related rule-breaking behavior is a more refined alternative term which has been recently introduced to...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Avans Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, Avans University, 4800 RA, Breda, P.O. Box 90.116, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

    R. C. van Halderen

  2. Department of Criminology, Open University, Heerlen, The Netherlands

    E. W. Kolthoff

Authors
  1. R. C. van Halderen
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  2. E. W. Kolthoff
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Correspondence to R. C. van Halderen or E. W. Kolthoff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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van Halderen, R.C., Kolthoff, E.W. (2016). Noble Cause Corruption and Task-Related Rule-Breaking Behavior. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2510-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2510-1

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