13 1 Definitions and typologies of police corruption Introduction Corruption can loosely be defined, in modern terms, as the abuse of public power or trusted office for private gain or benefit (Ganahl, 2013: 57). Police corruption concerns the misuse of power or authority by a police officer for direct or indirect gain in exchange for an official action or inaction, and they abuse their authority by either providing or neglecting to perform services within their role in exchange for the allocation of this benefit (Edelbacher and Ivković, 2004: 21
29 2 Preventing police corruption Introduction The previous chapter covered the definitions and popular typologies of police corruption to highlight how corruption can overlap with crime, misconduct and other forms of integrity violations for either individual, collective or group gain(s). Now that police corruption has been covered and understood, strategies to mitigate corruption within a police force are outlined. This chapter covers police corruption and a prevention strategy within the police, as well as commissions of inquiries, which led to a
73 4 The political, economic and cultural drivers of police corruption Introduction The previous chapter provided an overview of the challenges related to post-conflict policing under post-conflict reconstruction and SSR initiatives. A variety of conflict-stricken and developing contexts were illustrated to demonstrate that when corruption and criminality within the police forces are high, reformists face a number of problems, and their attempt to reshuffle policies, as evident with COIN, can result in ambiguity in policing mandates. This uncertainty is
47 3 Security sector reform, post‑conflict reconstruction and police corruption in post‑conflict states Introduction Now that police corruption and prevention strategies have been covered, the purpose of this chapter is to explain how police reform fits within wider security initiatives based on political ideals. We begin by looking at the dynamics of SSR, and more narrowly police reform, to focus on rebuilding a police sector and reforms that include the justice sector. We then explore post-conflict reconstruction and the liberalist forms that dictate
). In the case of this respondent, this was in part due to the reputation his particular news organisation had gained over the years, for breaking several major stories of police corruption and malpractice, and also due to the anti-police stance in his reporting. However, other outer circle journalists acknowledged that they did occasionally use unofficial police contacts, but that they needed to be careful not to make these contacts public or they would alienate their other sources, who were, as one outer circle journalist described, “members of the public, victims
Based on unprecedented empirical research conducted with lower levels of the Afghan police, this unique study assesses how institutional legacy and external intervention, from countries including the UK and the US, have shaped the structural conditions of corruption in the police force and the state.
Taking a social constructivist approach, the book combines an in-depth analysis of internal political, cultural and economic drivers with references to several regime changes affecting policing and security, from the Soviet occupation and Mujahidin militias to Taliban religious police.
Crossing disciplinary boundaries, Singh offers an invaluable contribution to the literature and to anti-corruption policy in developing and conflict-affected societies.
can create a security vacuum, giving rise to security forces’ loyalty to local militias, forming a culture of warlordism, and increasing support for informal security networks and insurgent groups (Özerdem, 2010: S46). All these features of corruption are plainly evident in war-torn and conflict- stricken countries. Police corruption may persist due to shortcomings in security sector reform (SSR) and post-conflict reconstruction, namely securitisation post-9/11 and patronage. SSR became a later policy goal as part of the broader aims of post
searching for a definition of corruption perhaps it is that corruption is the opposite of justice. Each concept is difficult to define, but you know each one when you see it. In terms of perceptions of corruption, addressing ‘noble cause’ corruption is a crucial prerequisite to justice. If a country’s police perceive that their own justice system will not deliver justice because it is corrupted, then this issue must be tackled before other anti-corruption measures can be attempted. Noble cause corruption and traffic police corruption are both visible symptoms of a much
Britain: in Europe, in addition to the Dutroux paedophile scandal that rocked Belgium in 2004, there were ‘calls for greater scrutiny of the police following the actions of the Special Unit for Police Affairs of the Norwegian Police in 2007 (four officers were responsible for more than half of the complaints against the Unit); the casual killing of a student by Greek Police in 2008 and the riots in cities in Greece that followed, the Romanian police corruption scandal of 2010 in which criminal files were purposely destroyed and instances of police brutality in
175 Conclusions Introduction So far the book has identified typologies of police corruption, broadened to include integrity violations, strategies to curtail police corruption and a variety of post-conflict policing cases. Earlier chapters have highlighted the difficulties with concealment of malfeasance, short-term training on ethics and anti-corruption and poor resourcing resulting in low pay and weak vetting structures. Comparisons with other post-conflict societies have been made. The book then addressed the underlying conditions of the Afghan state
