Adams and Balfour (1998) describe the phenomenon whereby otherwise well-intentioned individuals participate in systems that cause harm to innocent people. They suggest that “administrative evil” is unintentional evil made by good people within good organizations.
The Holocaust and the role of the German civil service in service to a government that perpetuated organized mass killing could be an example.
“Administrative evil” usually goes unseen or its appearance is masked. It may be masked in many different ways or methods, but the common characteristic is that people can take part in acts of evil without being aware that they are in fact doing anything at all wrong.
Read a good essay on the topic of administrative evil here.
Of interest, Google has just completed the purchase of Boston Dynamics, a private spin-off company from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, best known for supplying the US military with terrifying evil robotic animals. Find out more at The Guardian.