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The honest thief: a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment
Researchers studying intelligence ethics have rarely had access to the insight of serving intelligence practitioners. In this study, a small number of practitioners were sampled in an attempt to gain an understanding of the techniques they use to make sense of the ethically questionable tasks they a...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Public Law
2019
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| _version_ | 1867613344221888512 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Corbett,Trevor R |
| author2 | Berg, Julie |
| author_browse | Berg, Julie Corbett,Trevor R |
| author_facet | Berg, Julie Corbett,Trevor R |
| author_sort | Corbett,Trevor R |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Researchers studying intelligence ethics have rarely had access to the insight of serving intelligence practitioners. In this study, a small number of practitioners were sampled in an attempt to gain an understanding of the techniques they use to make sense of the ethically questionable tasks they are required to undertake within the legal framework of the institution of intelligence. The researcher argued that intelligence practitioners may use some of the neutralization techniques found in criminological and psychological models in order to remain effective in an environment which places their personal ethical framework at risk of compromise. In some aspects, themes seemed to correspond with the Rational Choice Theory of Cornish and Clarke (1986), the Neutralization Theory of Sykes and Matza (1957) and the Cognitive Dissonance theory of Festinger (1957). Themes were categorised under two primary headings: the institutional framework and a conceptual and theoretical perspective of ethics in relation to intelligence practice. It could be argued that intelligence ethics studies may be entrenched in the overarching fields of philosophy, criminology and psychology as they all offer useful explanations of how deviant behaviour is understood and justified by individuals. A combination of factors played into how they made ethical decisions and how they justified (or did not) these decisions. Findings suggested a combination of institutional frameworks (deontologically derived rules predetermined by the institution) and personal ethical frameworks (derived by each individual participant’s family, religion etc) were key in creating a working ethical framework (intertwining the former and the latter) which allowed/justified them in making ethical decisions which they considered vital to a nation-state’s survival. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29755 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:34:39.078Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateRange | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | Department of Public Law |
| publisherStr | Department of Public Law |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29755 The honest thief: a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment Corbett,Trevor R Berg, Julie Shearing, Clifford Law Researchers studying intelligence ethics have rarely had access to the insight of serving intelligence practitioners. In this study, a small number of practitioners were sampled in an attempt to gain an understanding of the techniques they use to make sense of the ethically questionable tasks they are required to undertake within the legal framework of the institution of intelligence. The researcher argued that intelligence practitioners may use some of the neutralization techniques found in criminological and psychological models in order to remain effective in an environment which places their personal ethical framework at risk of compromise. In some aspects, themes seemed to correspond with the Rational Choice Theory of Cornish and Clarke (1986), the Neutralization Theory of Sykes and Matza (1957) and the Cognitive Dissonance theory of Festinger (1957). Themes were categorised under two primary headings: the institutional framework and a conceptual and theoretical perspective of ethics in relation to intelligence practice. It could be argued that intelligence ethics studies may be entrenched in the overarching fields of philosophy, criminology and psychology as they all offer useful explanations of how deviant behaviour is understood and justified by individuals. A combination of factors played into how they made ethical decisions and how they justified (or did not) these decisions. Findings suggested a combination of institutional frameworks (deontologically derived rules predetermined by the institution) and personal ethical frameworks (derived by each individual participant’s family, religion etc) were key in creating a working ethical framework (intertwining the former and the latter) which allowed/justified them in making ethical decisions which they considered vital to a nation-state’s survival. 2019-02-22T11:23:59Z 2019-02-22T11:23:59Z 2018 2019-02-21T11:06:07Z Master Thesis Masters Mphil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29755 eng application/pdf Department of Public Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Law Corbett,Trevor R The honest thief: a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The honest thief: a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment |
| title_full | The honest thief: a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment |
| title_fullStr | The honest thief: a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment |
| title_full_unstemmed | The honest thief: a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment |
| title_short | The honest thief: a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment |
| title_sort | honest thief a qualitative study exploring the ethics of clandestine intelligence collection in a statutory environment |
| topic | Law |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29755 |
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