Noble cause corruption is an act which is usually illegal and almost certainly unethical used to reach to justify reaching an end result that may seem like it is noble and justifiable. Simply put the concept is known as “the means to justify a end”.

There is in fact never a good reason or justification of an illegal or unethical act even if the outcome is a good one, or is perceived as a justified outcome. In fact in police work such noble cause corruption as “planting evidence” or even stretching the truth to fit a crime can undermine the case. If found out, the criminal may in fact go free because of a violation of civil rights although he or she may have in fact committed a crime.
An example of Noble Cause corruption would be a person known by the community and police as a drug dealer who is stopped on a traffic stop and is found to be in possession of several small bags of marijuana adding to a total just shy of one ounce, which is this jurisdiction amounts to the difference between a misdemeanor possession charge and a felony intent to distribute charge. An officer in charge of weighing the evidence then adds a small amount of marijuana from existing evidence to push the total over one ounce. The officer knows the community has labeled this person a drug dealer and that he or she has “gotten away” with other crimes and feels justified in his/her actions. If this in fact was discovered,all evidence would be excluded essentially dismissing the case and this could undermine the image of the police agency.

APA Citation:
Smith, Nathan. M. (2006). Noble Cause Corruption.
Retrieved September 8, 2008, from http://www.computer-forensic-technician.com/wordpress/noble-cause-corruption/.