Rule bending by morally disengaged detectives: an ethnographic study

Abstract

Rule bending is a well-known practice in policing worldwide, often linked to 'noble cause corruption'. This ethnographic study shows how police detectives sometimes consider to creatively bend rules when rule abidance would lead to other values being jeopardized. This paper illustrates that the theory of role strain and moral disengagement could deepen our understanding of underlying mechanisms that explain rule bending practices. The mechanism of 'insulation from observability' in role strain theory and the mechanisms of 'moral justification' and 'displacement of responsibility' in moral disengagement seem to be applied often. However, these findings need further testing in future research.