Victims of Corrupt Practices: Does Crime Seriousness Affect Bribe Payers’ Decision to Report?

Abstract

Despite the considerable amount of literature on self-reported corruption and the salience of anti-corruption narratives among international organizations, little is known about bribe payers’ reporting decisions. Relying on the analysis of a self-report survey among a specific subsample of the victimized population—the university students who were forced to pay a bribe in their interaction with state agencies after extortion in Azerbaijan (n = 152), this paper attempts to ascertain whether the previously employed crime seriousness construct is relevant in the context of bribery. Results suggest that only 25.7% of bribe payments have been reported to the authorities. As the first study exploring the role of crime seriousness in the context of bribery reporting, we found that neither financial impact nor emotional distress caused by a bribe payment affects reporting behavior. Instead, previous contact with the criminal justice system was the sole predictor of decision-making, indicating for the first time in the literature the applicability of the contact thesis in the context of corruption. The study contributes to victimology as it provides insights into the correlates of decision-making among victims of bribery requests and tests the applicability of crime seriousness in a previously unstudied offence.

Keywords

bribery reporting quantitative methods < other corruption

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Agerberg

(2020). Corrupted estimates? Response bias in citizen surveys on corruption. Political Behavior, 44(7), 653–678. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-020-09630-5

Agerberg

(2021). Messaging about corruption: The power of social norms. Governance, 35(3), 929–950. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12633

Allison

(1999) Multiple Regression: A Primer. Pine Forge Press.

Allport

G. W.

(1954/1979). The nature of prejudice. Perseus Books.

Amini

Douarin

Hinks

(2022). Individualism and attitudes towards reporting corruption: Evidence from post-communist economies. Journal of Institutional Economics, 18(1), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137420000648

Anderson

C. J.

Tverdova

Y. V.

(2003). Corruption, political allegiances and attitudes toward government in contemporary democracies. American Journal of Political Science, 47(1), 91–109.

Asomah

J. Y.

Dim

E. E.

(2023). Are women less corrupt than men? Evidence from Ghana. Crime Law and Social Change, 79(5), 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-022-10034-1

Austin

C. P.

Steyerberg

E. W.

(2015). The number of subjects per variable required in linear regression analyses. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 68(6), 627–636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2014.12.014

Aviv

(2014). Crime victims and attitudes towards the police: The Israeli case. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, 15(2), 115–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2013.874170

10.

Azfar

Murrell

(2009). Identifying reticent respondents: Assessing the quality of survey data on corruption and values. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 57(2), 05–011. https://doi.org/10.1086/592840

11.

Barbabela

L. A.

(2024). Positive feedback mechanism? Institutional responsiveness to bribery reporting by citizens in 12 African countries. Crime Law and Social Change, 82(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-024-10139-9

12.

Bauhr

(2017). Need or greed? Conditions for collective action against corruption. Governance, 30(4), 561–581. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12232

13.

Bello

P. O.

(2021). Exploring procedural justice, obligation to obey and cooperation with the police in a sample of university students. Contemporary Justice Review, 24(2), 262–277.

14.

Bennett

R. R.

Wiegand

R. B.

(1994). Observations on crime reporting in a developing nation. Criminology; An Interdisciplinary Journal, 32(1), 135–148. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1994.tb01149.x

15.

Bickman

Helwig

(1979). Bystander reporting of a crime. Criminology; An Interdisciplinary Journal, 17(3), 283–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1979.tb01295.x

16.

Blair

Coppock

Moor

(2018). When to worry about sensitivity bias: Evidence from 30 years of list experiments. Working Paper.

17.

Blavatnik School of Government (2017) Curbing Corruption in Azerbaijan: The Case of ASAN. https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/research/publications/curbing-corruption-azerbaijan-case-asan-0

18.

Boateng

D. F.

(2016). Crime reporting behavior: Do attitudes toward the police matter? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 33(18), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260516632356

19.

Bosick

S. J.

Rennison

C. M.

Gover

A. R.

Dodge

(2012). Reporting violence to the police: Predictors through the life course. Journal of Criminal Justice, 40(6), 441–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2012.05.001

20.

Bowles

Garcia

R. M.

Garoupa

(2009). Crime reporting decisions and the costs of crime. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 15(4), 365–377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-009-9109-8

21.

Bradford

Jackson

Stanko

E. A.

(2009). Contact and confidence: Revisiting the impact of public encounters with the police. Policing and Society, 19(1), 20–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439460802457594

22.

Buddery

Kippin

(2020) What do people want, need and expect from public services? https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/publication/1970-01/sri_what_do_people_want_need_and_expect_from_public_services_110310.pdf

23.

Buehler

(2020). Judges, bribes, and verdicts: How court experience reshapes attitudes about judicial corruption among Morocco’s most marginalized. Mediterranean Politics, 25(5), 650–672. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2019.1620440

24.

Caucasus Research Resource Centers (2013) Caucasus Barometer 2013 Azerbaijan. http://www.crrccenters.org/2

25.

Centre for Public Impact (2016) Azerbaijani Service and Assessment Network (ASAN). https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/azerbaijani-service-and-assessment-network-asan

26.

Chatterjee

Suy

(2019). An overview of citizen satisfaction with public service: Based on the model of expectancy disconfirmation. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 7(4), 243–258. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2019.74019

27.

Cheeseman

Peiffer

(2022). Why efforts to fight corruption can undermine the social contract: Lessons from a survey experiment in Nigeria. Governance, 36(4), 1045–1061. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12720

28.

Cohen

(1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155

29.

Dattalo

(2009). Statistical power analysis: Determining sample size: balancing power, precision, and practicality. Oxford Academic.

30.

Deininger

Mpuga

(2004). Does greater accountability improve the quality of delivery of public services? Evidence from Uganda. World Bank Publications.

31.

Field

P. A.

(2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS: And sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll. Sage.

32.

Frank

Lambsdorff

Boehm

(2011). Gender and corruption: Lessons from laboratory corruption experiments. European Journal of Development Research, 23, 59–71.

33.

Gans-Morse

Borges

Makarin

Mannah-Blankson

Nickow

Zhang

(2018). Reducing bureaucratic corruption: Interdisciplinary perspectives on what works. World Development, 105, 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.12.015

34.

Gilman

S. C.

(2018). To understand and to misunderstand how corruption is measured: Academic research and the corruption perception index. Public Integrity, 20(sup1), S74–S88. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2018.1472974

35.

Gonzalez

Mackenna

Munoz

(2019). The experience and perception of corruption: A comparative study in 34 societies. International Journal of Sociology, 49(3), 222–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207659.2019.1605030

36.

Gottfredson

M. R.

Gottfredson

D. M.

(1988). Decision making in criminal justice: Toward the rational exercise of discretion (2nd ed.). Plenum.

37.

Guzy

Hirtenlehner

(2015). Trust in the German police: Determinants and consequences for behavior. In G. Meško & J. Tankebe (Eds.), Trust and legitimacy in criminal justice. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09813-5_10

38.

Hart

T. C.

Rennison

(2003). Reporting crime to the police, 1992-2000 (Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report). U.S. Department of Justice.

39.

Höglinger

Jann

Diekmann

(2016). Sensitive questions in online surveys: An experimental evaluation of different implementations of the randomized response technique and the crosswise model. Survey Research Methods, 10(3), 171–187. https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2016.v10i3.6703

40.

Holmes

(1997). Corruption and the crisis of the post-communist state. Crime, Law and Social Change, 27, 275–297. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008271702238

41.

Hunt

Laszlo

(2012). Is bribery really regressive? Bribery’s costs, benefits, and mechanisms. World Development, 40, 355–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.06.001

42.

Ivlevs

Hinks

(2018). Former communist party membership and bribery in the post-socialist countries. Journal of Comparative Economics, 46(4), 1411–1424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2018.06.001

43.

Jaunky

V. C.

Jeetoo

Bajah

Ramesh

(2020). The importance of understanding the anti-corruption legislation to promote corruption reporting: Lessons from Mauritius. International Journal of Public Administration, 43(15), 1282–1292. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1669049

44.

Karalashvili

Kraay

Murrell

(2015). Doing the survey two-step: The effects of reticence on estimates of corruption in two-stage survey questions. Policy Research Working Paper, 7276, 335–387. https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-7276

45.

Krumpal

(2011). Determinants of social desirability bias in sensitive surveys: A literature review. Quality & Quantity, 47(4), 2025–2047. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9640-9

46.

Ledeneva

A. V.

(2018). The global encyclopaedia of informality: Understanding social and cultural complexity. UCL Press.

47.

Lee

H. D.

Cao

Kim

Woo

(2019). Police contact and confidence in the police in a medium-sized city. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 56(1), 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2018.12.003

48.

Mangafić

Veselinović

(2020). The determinants of corruption at the individual level: Evidence from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 33(1), 2670–2691. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2020.1723426

49.

Marquette

Peiffer

(2015) Corruption and Collective Action, DLP/U4 Research Paper 32. http://publications.dlprog.org/CorruptionandCollectiveAction.pdf

50.

McCarthy

L. A.

Gehlbach

Frye

Buckley

(2021). Who reports crime? Citizen engagement with the police in Russia and Georgia. Europe- Asia Studies, 73(1), 8–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2020.1851354

51.

Menard

(1995) Applied logistic regression analysis. Sage University paper series on quantitative applications in the social sciences. Sage. 07–106.

52.

Moldovan

Van de Walle

(2013). Gifts or bribes? Public Integrity, 15(4), 385–402.

53.

Monyake

(2019). Can the poor fight back? A multilevel analysis of corruption, poverty and collective demand for accountability in Africa. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 36(4), 514–531. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2018.1548755

54.

Olken

B. A.

Pande

(2012). Corruption in developing countries. Annual Review of Economics, 4(1), 479–509. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-080511-110917

55.

Onyango

(2022). The art of bribery! analysis of police corruption at traffic checkpoints and roadblocks in Kenya. International Review of Sociology, 32(2), 311–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2022.2038845

56.

Peiffer

(2020). Message received? Experimental findings on how messages about corruption shape perceptions. British Journal of Political Science, 50(3), 1207–1215. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123418000108

57.

Peiffer

Alvarez

(2016). Who will be the ‘principled-principals’? Perceptions of corruption and willing-ness to engage in anticorruption activism. Governance, 29(3), 351–369.

58.

Peiffer

Rose

(2016). Why are the poor more vulnerable to bribery in Africa? The institutional effects of services. The Journal of Development Studies, 54(1), 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2016.1257121

59.

Posick

(2014). Victimization and reporting to the police: The role of negative emotionality. Psychology of Violence, 4(2), 210–223. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031770

60.

President. az (2022). National Strategy of the Enhancement of Anti-Corruption Strategy 2022-2026. https://e-qanun.az/framework/49349

61.

Prosecutor General’s Office (2023). Tarix [History] https://genprosecutor.gov.az/az/page/sistem/bas-prokuror-yaninda-korrupsiyaya-qarsi-mubarize-bas-idaresi/tarix

62.

Rebovich

Layne

(2000). The national public survey on white collar crime. National White Collar Crime Center. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/181968NCJRS.pdf

63.

Reisig

M. D.

Parks

R. B.

(2000). Experience, quality of life, and neighborhood context: A hierarchical analysis of satisfaction with police. Justice Quarterly, 17(3), 607–630. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820000094681

64.

Rennison

C. M.

(2007). Reporting to the police by Hispanic victims of violence. Violence and Victims, 22(6), 754–772. https://doi.org/10.1891/088667007782793110

65.

Reynolds

(2022). Decisions, decisions: An analysis of identity theft victims’ reporting to police, financial institutions, and credit bureaus.

66.

Reyns

B. W.

Randa

(2015). Victim reporting behaviors following identity theft victimization: Results from the national crime victimization survey. Crime and Delinquency, 63(7), 814–838. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128715620428

67.

Robert

Zauberman

Miceli

Névanen

Didier

(2010). The victim’s decision to report offences to the police in France: Stating losses or expressing attitudes. International Review of Victimology, 17(2), 179–207. https://doi.org/10.1177/026975801001700203

68.

Rose

. (2015). Reducing bribery for public services delivered to citizens. https://open.cmi.no/cmi-xmlui/handle/11250/2475140

69.

Rose

Mishler

(2010). Experience versus perception of corruption: Russia as a test case. Global Crime, 11(2), 145–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/17440571003669175

70.

Rosenbaum

D. P.

Schuck

A. M.

Costello

S. K.

Hawkins

D. F.

Ring

M. K.

(2005). Attitudes toward the police: The effects of direct and vicarious experience. Police Quarterly, 8(3), 343–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611104271085

71.

Ryvkin

Serra

Tremewan

(2015). I paid a bribe: Information sharing and extortionary corruption. European Economic Review, 94(5), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.02.003

72.

Sabina

Cuevas

C. A.

Schally

J. L.

(2012). Help-seeking in a sample of victimized Latino women: The influence of victimization types. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27(1), 40–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260511416460

73.

Sadigov

(2017). Localization, formalism, and passivity: Symbols shaping bribe offers in Azerbaijan. Journal of Civil Society, 13(4), 406–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2017.1387716

74.

Sandholtz

Taagepera

(2007). Corruption, culture, and communism. International Review of Sociology, 15(1), 109–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906700500038678

75.

Schoepfer

Piquero

N. L.

(2009). Studying the correlates of fraud victimization and reporting. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(2), 209–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2009.02.003

76.

Seligson

(2006). The measurement and impact of corruption victimization: Survey evidence from Latin America. World Development, 34(2), 381–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.03.012

77.

Sharma

Singhal

Tarp

(2021). Corruption and mental health: Evidence from Vietnam. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organisation, 185(c), 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.02.008

78.

Sheu

C. J.

Chiu

S. P.

(2012). Determinants of property crime victims to report to the police in Taiwan. International Review of Victimology, 18(3), 251–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758012446986

79.

Sidebottom

(2015). On the correlates of reporting assault to the police in Malawi. British Journal of Criminology, 55(2), 381–393. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azu083

80.

Skogan

W. G.

(2006). Asymmetry in the impact of encounters with police. Policing and Society, 16(2), 99–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439460600662098

81.

Social Research Centre (2020). Azərbaycanda əhalinin cinayət və qanunazidd digər hərəkətlərdən zərər çəkməsi və aidiyyəti qurumlara müraciəti [Victimization of the population in Azerbaijan from criminal and other illegal actions and reporting to relevant institutions]. https://stm.az/storage/common/1620818349.2ac17-cinayetkarliq-12.pdf (accessed 01 November 2023)

82.

Stevens

(2002). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences (4th ed.). Erlbaum. Chapter 3.

83.

Sundström

(2013). Corruption in the commons: Why bribery hampers enforcement of environmental regulations in South African fisheries. International Journal of the Commons, 7(2), 454–472. https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.370

84.

Suresh

Chandrashekara

(2012). Sample size estimation and power analysis for clinical research studies. Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences, 5(1), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-1208.97779

85.

Swamy

Knack

Lee

Azfar

(2001). Gender and corruption. Journal of Development Economics, 6(4), 25–55.

86.

Tankebe

(2019). Cooperation with the police against corruption: Exploring the roles of legitimacy, deterrence and collective action theories. British Journal of Criminology, 59(6), 1390–1410. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azz030

87.

Tannenberg

(2022) The autocratic bias: Self-censorship of regime support. Democratization, 29(4), 591–610. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2021.1981867

88.

Tarling

Morris

(2010). Reporting crime to the police. The British Journal of Criminology, 50(3), 474–490. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azq011

89.

Tourangeau

Rips

L. J.

Rasinski

(2000). The psychology of survey response. Cambridge University Press.

90.

Tourangeau

Yan

(2007). Sensitive questions in surveys. Psychological Bulletin, 133(5), 859–883. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.5.859

91.

Transparency International (2016) Global corruption barometer 2016: Results for Europe and Central Asia. https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2016

92.

Transparency International (2017) Corruption on the rise in Latin America and the Caribbean. https://www.transparency.org/en/gcb/latin-america/corruption-on-the-rise-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean

93.

Transparency International (2020). Asia. https://www.transparency.org/en/gcb/asia/asia-2020

94.

Transparency International (2021). Asia Pacific. https://www.transparency.org/en/region/asia-pacific

95.

Transparency International. (2015) Africa . https://www.transparency.org/en/gcb/africa/africa-9th-edition

96.

Tyler

T. R.

(1990). Why people obey the law. Yale University Press.

97.

Tyler

Fagan

Geller

(2014). Street stops and police legitimacy: Teachable moments in young urban men’s legal socialization. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 11(4), 751–785. https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12055

98.

Van Damme

(2015). The impact of police contact on trust and police legitimacy in Belgium. Policing and Society, 27(2), 205–228.

99.

van de Weijer

Leukfeldt

Van der Zee

(2020). Reporting cybercrime victimization: Determinants, motives, and previous experiences. Policing: An International Journal, 43(1), 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-07-2019-0122

100.

Van Dijk

(2011). Highlights of the international crime victim’s survey. In Natarajan

(Ed.), International crime and justice (pp. 462–470). Cambridge University Press.

101.

Verdenicci

Hough

(2015). People power and anti-corruption; demystifying citizen-centred approaches. Crime, Law and Social Change, 64(1), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-015-9585-3

102.

Walton

G. W.

Peiffer

(2017). The impacts of education and institutional trust on citizens’ willingness to report corruption: Lessons from Papua New Guinea. Australian Journal of Political Science, 52(4), 517–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2017.1374346

103.

Wild

Kyröläinen

A. J.

Kuperman

(2022). How representative are student convenience samples? A study of literacy and numeracy skills in 32 countries. PLoS ONE, 17(7), e0271191. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271191

104.

Zaykowski

Allain

C. A.

Campagna

M. L.

(2019). Examining the paradox of crime reporting: Are disadvantaged victims more likely to report to the police? Law and Society Review, 53(4), 1305–1340. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12440

105.

Zhang

(2014). Too much covariates in a multivariable model may cause the problem of overfitting. Journal of Thoracic Disease, 6(9), E196–E197.

106.

Zhang

(2022). The relationship between corruption perception and depression: A multiple mediation model. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 15, 1943–1954. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S370045

107.

Zhang

Messner

S. F.

Liu

(2007). An exploration of the determinants of reporting crime to the police in the city of Tianjin, China. Criminology: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 45(4), 959–984. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2007.00085.x

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB