Police Corruption and Economic Development
Extensive corruption in a country’s police force has an overall negative impact on the development process, write Jens Chr. Andvig and Gbewopo Attila.
In a new paper they have analysed the consequences of crime and police corruption on the level of development using crime victimization statistics that so far have only rarely been used for the purpose.
- While the existing literature on economic crime focuses on the consequences of development on the crime rate, we attempt in this study to assess the reverse effect, that is, the effect of crime on development, says Jens Chr. Andvig.
Although corruption in the police is exceptionally high in the public administration of developing countries, no attempt has been made to empirically estimate its effects on development. Not only are police activities in the society necessary to secure private property, but they also contribute to the enforcement of the law and hence to development.
- We expected from theoretical considerations that extensive corruption in the police would have an overall negative impact on development. That expectation was confirmed, says Andvig.
- Although the empirical observations gathered made it impossible to use data that could reflect the relationship between police corruption and organized crime, we found that the institutional cluster consisting of crime and police behaviour appears to have a significant effect on economic development. Here we have sought to document the interactions between the police and regular criminal activities with identifiable victims, except in the case of murder, and their joint effects on development, Andvig concludes.
The main results of Andvig and Attila’s investigations are as follows:
- Unlike police corruption, crime seems to have no robust direct and significant impact on the level of development.
- The main effects of crime, although negative, are rather indirect. Hence, crime affects the level of GDP per capita through police corruption, human capital accumulation (education and life expectancy) and urbanization.
- The magnitude of the impact of crime on development differs according to crime types, such as violence crime and property crime. For both crime types, the indirect effect through police corruption is strong.
Reference:
Andvig, Jens Chr., Gbewopo Attila (2010). Crime, Police Corruption and Development: Evidence from Victimization Data , NUPI Working Paper: 772, Oslo: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).