Violence, poverty and police corruption

The police in low-income countries are among the most corrupt sector of their governments, sporadic evidence indicates. In this project we seek to estimate the extent of police corruption and explain its variation. Here the interaction between police beha viour and crime, some of which is violent, is important. The effect of police corruption on crime has further consequences. In part 1) of the project the point of departure will be the study by Soares, Azfar and Gurgur, who estimate the size of police corruption and its strength of interaction with crime for all the countries where crime statistics allow. Building on existing research, the wider interaction with inequality, GDP levels and growth and poverty will be traced. 2) Consists of a number of case studies where changes in crime patterns are described and analysed against the major background of the case?s relevant set of conflict history, and institutional pattern and change.3) consists of an as detailed analysis of the police organisation, an d its recent changes the public sources and eventual direct access to the police force allows. Together they will be the first major research-based analysis of low-income country police and its relation to development in decades.