ethical violations
Crossing professional lines
Ethical violations are breaches of moral standards or professional codes of conduct.
The term appears most often in institutional contexts—medicine, law, academia, business—where formal rules govern behavior: The researcher was fired for ethical violations involving falsified data.
Violations range from conflicts of interest and plagiarism to exploitation and fraud.
Unlike legal violations, ethical violations may not break laws but still breach expected standards of integrity.
- abuse of powerMisusing entrusted authority
- quid pro quoReciprocal exchange of value
- briberyCorrupt payment for influence
- malpracticeHarmful professional negligence
- professional misconductEthics breach at work
corruption · cover up · dishonesty · bad faith · fraud · conflict of interest · embezzlement · off the books · institutional racism · insider trading · betrayal · misconduct · malfeasance · labor exploitation · whistleblower · human rights abuses · negligence · perjury
- ethics violationsbribery, bribes, kickbacks, kickback, nepotism
- malpracticemalpractice, medical malpractice, legal malpractice, malpractice insurance, professional negligence
- official misconductmalfeasance, misconduct, misfeasance, nonfeasance, dereliction
ethical violationsethical conduct
Morally principled behavior
ethical behavior · moral rectitude · righteousness · doing the right thing · probity
ethical violationscompliance
Adhering to requirements
professional integrity · rule-following · adherence · conformity · best practices
ethical violationsintegrity
Moral soundness and consistency
honesty · uprightness · moral courage · honor · trustworthiness