Criminological responses to corruption

Since the mid-1990s, the subject of corruption and integrity has been on the agenda of both the public and the private sectors. New regulations related to this area have been introduced, and organizations have increased their engagement in self-regulation, the drafting of codes of conduct, and the development of preventive programs. To address the phenomenon of “whistleblowers”, (anonymous) hot-lines for reporting integrity violations have been established and confidential officers put in place. Nevertheless, our society is faced almost daily with new scandals, including corruption by public servants (sometimes entangled with private business enterprises), whistleblowers becoming victims of their openness, and organizations losing trust and reputation as a result of their management’s behavior. Yet most research on corruption has focused on the scope of the problem and the causes situated in differences between countries and organizations. Such research, although it has led to important conclusions, does not answer the question of why in one particular organization, a specific employee or manager engages in unethical behavior while his or her close colleague does not. Yet such knowledge seems vital to achieving a drastic reduction of such unwanted behavior in organizations. This chapter delves into the causes of corruption by combining the relevant elements of criminological theory with valuable insights from other disciplines.