Police Ethics, Third Edition: The Corruption of Noble Cause

This book provides an examination of noble cause, how it emerges as a fundamental principle of police ethics and how it can provide the basis for corruption. The noble cause - a commitment to "doing something about bad people" - is a central "ends-based" police ethic that can be corrupted when officers violate the law on behalf of personally held moral values. This book is about the power that police use to do their work and how it can corrupt police at the individual and organizational levels. It provides students of policing with a realistic understanding of the kinds of problems they will confront in the practice of police work.

• Key terms supplement each chapter.


• Provides students of policing with a realistic understanding of problems that arise in police work.

John P. Crank is a Professor in School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He received his M.A. in Sociology from the University of Arizona, his M.P.A. from the University of Illinois, and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado. He has published in the area of police effectiveness, and in the areas of organizational culture and structure, focusing on the police and on parole and probation. He has also published on criminal justice theory and counter-terrorism and was the recipient of the Academy of Criminal Justice Science's Outstanding Book Award in 2004 for his book Imagining Justice (Anderson Publishing).