NCJ Number
187195
Date Published
2000
Length
583 pages
Annotation
Research conducted jointly by the German Federal Criminal Police Office and the Police Management Academy during 1995-99 focused on the nature and extent of corruption in the police, public prosecutors’ offices, courts, and correctional personnel in Germany.
Abstract
The research collected information from a nationwide written questionnaire sent to 770 representatives of the police, judiciary, and customs authorities in 1997; a written questionnaire distributed to 104 participants in seminars at the Police Management Academy in 1996; 85 partially structured interviews with experts; and an analysis of 38 penal or disciplinary files. Results revealed that the groups regarded penal authorities, customs authorities, and police as most vulnerable to corruption. Corruption took many forms. The majority of police and customs participants regarded bribery as mainly spontaneous rather than planned. The multiple causes included society’s declining values, the defective role-model function of management and political representatives, financial issues, character weakness, lack of supervision, and lack of awareness of corruption. Most participants regarded corruption as a common manifestation of organized crime. Participants agreed on a combination of prevention and repression as response strategies, starting with awareness training and training in professional ethics, improvements in supervision and controls, and reinforcement of the role-model function of superiors and trainers. The analysis concluded that no reason exists to submit to corruption and that the recommendations for action can reduce corruption, although corruption will continue to occur in individual cases. Figures, tables, footnotes, index, list of abbreviations, and approximately 250 references