Minimising corruption: Applying lessons from the crime prevention literature

This article explores how the criminology literature, particularly the literature on crime prevention, might supplement current efforts to minimise corruption. It seeks to identify and apply approaches to offenders and offending to the problem of minimising corruption. In summary, this article demonstrates that the crime prevention literature does have a number of applications for those interested in minimising corruption. In general terms, this literature advocates, amongst other things, taking an informed approach to corruption minimisation by developing an understanding of the process of engaging in corrupt conduct. Exploring the offender's perspective and considering different types of corruption separately are two strategies suggested to facilitate understanding the factors which underlie corrupt conduct. In this way those seeking to minimise corruption would be better placed to identify how and where to intervene to optimise the likelihood of prevention and hence be able to tailor prevention techniques to individual types of corruption. Six specific lessons from the crime prevention literature and their applications are illustrated in this article. This current article is intended to promote discussion of potential strategies for combating corruption by the growing numbers of people interested in this challenge. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.