A criminological perspective on corruption in the public sector

Abstract

Corruption from a criminological perspective forms the basis of this dissertation. The crime component of corruption the 'what', 'why' and 'how' is the dominant theme throughout the study and includes corruption in the South African public sector, highlighting police corruption in the Western Cape. Although this study is exploratory, certain qualitative interviewing techniques, including an interview guide, were used to maximise the information obtained from knowledgeable interviewees. Corruption was further elucidated by the employment of criminological theories to explain pertinent findings in the research, by highlighting risk factors that lead to corruption, by giving examples of corruption and by discussing anti-corruption agencies and the effectiveness of existing legislation. Corruption in the public sector has always been around and will be ad infinitum. The severity of the consequences of this phenomenon can be curtailed by the will of politicians, the involvement of civil society and an operational criminal justice system.