Introduction
Corruption is a highly widespread phenomenon, which normally occurs in the situations of political and social dominance of one individual over another and when regulations and policies poorly function. This definition applies to the case of police corruption since law enforcement officers can exercise both legal and physical power to gain personal and financial benefits at the expense of citizens. Noteworthily, along with other types of corruption, police corruption is considered to be more common in less developed and less democratic countries (Aymaliev & Kosals, 2016). A possible reason for such an outcome is that less democratic states provide greater opportunities for involvement in corruption due to administrational failures to deal with the problem.
As a developing democracy, Russia has high corruption levels that have been reported in numerous international studies (Gerber & Mendelson, 2008; Semukhina & Reynolds, 2013). Acknowledging the severity of the problem, president Dmitry Medvedev began a process of police reform in 2011 aimed “to improve the work of Internal Affairs Authorities of the Russian Federation” (Gladarev, 2012, para. 1; Galeotti, 2012).
While many researchers question the results of the introduced initiatives, the causes for the insignificant effect of the recent Russian police reform remain understudied. Therefore, the present research project will explore the determinants of police corruption that the reform aimed to target from the perspective of institutional theory, which captures both individual and organizational factors of corruption. The police reform in Russia will also be contrasted with measures undertaken with a purpose to curb police corruption in other countries, including Australia and Georgia.
Research Question
Which individual, institutional, and organizational factors of corruption did Medvedev’s 2011 police reform target, and how successful was it in eliminating the practice of corruption among law enforcement officers in Russia compared to other states?
Aims
To evaluate the factors of in/effectiveness of Medvedev’s 2011 police reform while contrasting the undertaken measures with those from other countries (Australia and Georgia).
Objectives
The formulated research aim will be achieved by meeting the following objectives:
- to critically evaluate the existing literature on factors predisposing individuals and public bodies to corruption by focusing on the institutional theory perspective.
- to appraise the literature on the police system in Russia, identifying its inefficiencies that could be linked to a high prevalence of corruption among law enforcement officers.
- to evaluate the existing literature on anti-corruption measures in several countries with varying police corruption levels while applying the institutional theory perspective.
- to conduct a comparative analysis of findings on the efficacy of anti-corruption measures in Russia and other selected states.
- to discuss the implications of the carried-out analysis with the purpose to provide some practical recommendations.
Why Is Research Worth Doing?
Corruption has multiple harmful effects at many levels: individual, social, and economic. When speaking of police corruption, it increases the vulnerability of citizens to unjust treatment and leads to significant individual and public distrust in police (Lewis, 2017; Tankebe, 2010). In its turn, a low level of trust prevents community members from collaborating with law enforcement personnel, which undermines the ability of police to solve crimes (Tankebe,2010). These negative effects of corruption indicate that there is a need to find ways to curb this phenomenon to increase the effectiveness of law enforcement activities and promote community resilience.
One of the best ways to attain this goal is through the investigation of factors determining corrupt behaviors and the analysis of real-life cases. By applying the concepts of the institutional theory of corruption and evaluating the experience of Russia, the present research will aim to elucidate which measures can be efficient in combating police corruption. As a result of critical and comparative analysis, it will be possible to identify some policy implications that could be considered while re-designing anti-corruption regulations in Russia. The findings of the proposed research could also be applied to the experiences of other countries.
Literature Review
Key Literature
The reasons why a former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, decided to implement a police reform were the ineffectiveness of law enforcement services in the country and a strong public distrust. As stated by Galeotti (2012), local and international human rights organizations received about 5000 complaints every year on the cases of power abuse by police officers, including torture and bribes. Predatory policing is regarded as one of the most common types of power abuse by Russian law enforcement officers. This term is synonymous with bribery since it implies the use of authority with the purpose to maximise personal gain (Chistyakova & Robertson, 2012).
According to Light, Prado, and Wang (2015), predatory behaviors among Russian police officers are primarily motivated by officers’ self-interests of financial character rather than by the interests of those in higher professional and political positions. In line with this observation, the police reform initiated in 2011 mainly aimed to address the financial interests of law enforcement personnel.
Before 2011, the average monthly wage of police officers in Russia was low. At that time, it equaled approximately 600 EUR but, after the reform, increased to at least 1000 USD per month (Gladarev, 2012; Semukhina, 2014). Internal assessment and promotion systems have also changed to increase accountability, eliminate incompetent team members, and improve policing effectiveness (Semukhina, 2014). However, regardless of the undertaken measures, it is considered that Medvedev’s reform did not lead to desired results.
While the introduced initiatives helped to increase the level of job satisfaction among law enforcement officers, there is no evidence that the level of police corruption has declined in Russia (Semukhina, 2014). According to Kakachia and O’Shea (2012), the level of public fear and distrust in the police did not change as well. At the same time, police reform that was undertaken in Georgia after 2003 helped to increase both police effectiveness and the overall public image of law enforcement personnel (Kakachia & O’Shea, 2012).
As stated by Kakachia and O’Shea (2012), the main reason for that was the alignment of Georgian police reforms with the overall state-building and political renovation efforts that took place during the Rose Revolution. That period was associated with significant cultural and regulatory changes in Georgia, and they could contribute to the success of changes in the local police system as well.
When comparing the recent Russian police reform with the case of Australia, Aymaliev and Kosals (2016) also suggested that the overall political culture and excessive bureaucratic pressure could inhibit the attempts to curb corruption. To achieve better outcomes, Russian police may need to eliminate institutional distortions, implement community policing, enhance hiring practices and accountability (Aymaliev & Kosals, 2016; Kakachia & O’Shea, 2012). However, to make decisive conclusions and recommendations, further research of causes for the ineffectiveness of the Russian reform is required.
Key Theories
Traditional corruption models primarily look at the problem from an economic perspective. However, classic theories of corruption that focus on individuals’ self-interest and regulative factors have been unsuccessful in explaining the phenomenon of corruption fully and suggesting strategies aimed to eliminate it (Pillay, 2014). According to one of the rational choice perspectives on corruption, the principal-agent approach, major parties: the citizen, the principal (the government), and the agent (a public official) who connects the former two parties (Pillay, 2014).
Agents frequently enjoy the monopoly of power yet their inclinations towards corrupt exchanges depend on the degree of their freedom of action in exercising the power, as well as the strength of information barriers between them and the principal (Pillay, 2014). It means that corruption takes place when agents have a substantial level of control and freedom in decision-making and when strict accountability measures are absent.
The principal-agent perspective seems to be valid, yet it does not fully take into account factors that serve as moral constraints or facilitators towards one’s engagement in corrupt exchanges. In its turn, the institutional theory of corruption explains corrupt behaviors while focusing on different environmental (organizational and institutional) factors leading to or inhibiting fraudulent behaviors. According to the model created by Luo (2005), the level of agents’ involvement in corruption is determined by a combination of behavioral, structural, and cultural determinants.
When developing his theory, Luo (2005) primarily focused on the elements in the task environment (oligopoly, regulatory control, and structural uncertainty) and the institutional environment (institutional transparency, fairness, and complexity) and proposed that with changes in any of them, employees’ involvement in fraudulent behaviors either increases or decreases. For example, when task uncertainty, institutional injustice, misunderstanding of regulations, and other of the mentioned environmental elements intensify, employees feel more pressure to engage in corruption.
Based on the abovementioned explanation, effective anti-corruption measures should target structural and regulatory systems in organizations. At the same time, Luo (2005), Sudibyo and Jianfu (2015), and Misangyi, Weaver, and Elms (2008) indicate that organizational culture plays a vital role in preventing immoral behaviors of employees. Organizational culture is defined as “the tradition where decision-making is morality-based;” it comprises a multitude of values, norms, and behavioral standards that either encourage or discourage any form of unethical decisions and actions among team members (Sudibyo & Jianfu, 2015, p. 819; Misangyi, Weaver, & Elms, 2008).
Thus, to understand corruption from the institutional perspective, it is not enough to evaluate only the organizational architecture and regulatory system. It is also essential to take into account the cultural dynamics of corruption since they affect individual behaviors to a large extent.
Gaps in Knowledge
While the reviewed studies indicate that Medvedev’s reform resulted in small or no changes in terms of corruption incidence among police employees, they did not provide a comprehensive overview of factors that could determine a low level of the reform’s impacts. Some of the studies focused on the review of general political culture and changes in macro-regulations as part of police reform (Kakachia & O’Shea, 2012), while others criticized the inefficiency of internal organizational practices and structures, including human resource management and accountability (Aymaliev & Kosals, 2016).
Nevertheless, a comprehensive overview of the matter did not take place. Additionally, although articles comparing the experience of Russia with countries that were more successful in curbing police corruption are available, previously no research was conducted to evaluate the 2011 police reform in Russia from the institutional theory perspective and to identify a specific individual, institutional, and organizational determinants of corruption. Thus, the proposed study will aim to unify the existing sporadic evidence on the topic of interest, while also analyzing the issue from an original theoretical perspective to develop new knowledge and, in this way, contribute to the existing body of literature.
Methodology
Primary Method
Considering the infeasibility of collecting primary data on the topic of police corruption in Russia, the proposed study will utilize merely the secondary data gathered from various high-quality academic and governmental sources. Due to the chosen data type, the main study method that will be employed in this research project is a literature review, which involves a comprehensive and critical analysis of available and relevant information on a matter of interest.
In general, the main objectives of this methodology are the evaluation of relationships and associations between different variables and trends identified in the literature, and the detection of various gaps and controversies in the existing body of research (Charles Sturt University, 2019). Overall, the chosen approach is expected to serve as a basis for an in-depth interpretation of evidence on the content and effectiveness of the Russian police reform.
It is, however, worth noting that a traditional literature review may not be enough to draw valid conclusions regarding the chosen problem since the method usually has the purpose of merely providing an insight into the current knowledge. According to Snyder (2019), traditional or narrative literature reviews may frequently be insufficiently thorough and rigorous. Therefore, to increase the quality of findings, a more systematic approach to the review of evidence must be utilized.
Systematic literature reviews imply the evaluation of primarily quantitative and empirical studies located by using strict and narrowly focused inclusion criteria and, thus, allow gathering evidence about effects that has practical and policymaking implications (Snyder, 2019). Nevertheless, since the number of accessible empirical studies on the effectiveness of police reform in Russia is currently small, the integrative literature review approach will be employed.
Unlike the systematic review, integrative reviews assist in the research of topics that have been previously investigated across disparate disciplines and do not require the selection of only empirical research articles in the sample (Snyder, 2019). Besides allowing the identification of various themes in literature, this type of review provides an opportunity “to overview the knowledge base, to critically review and potentially re-conceptualize, and to expand on the theoretical foundation of the specific topic as it develops” (Snyder, 2019, p. 336). Another considerable advantage of integrative reviews is that they can address emerging and under-researched topics (Snyder, 2019).
Overall, the method allows for a more creative way of data collection and combination and synthesis of knowledge from distinct fields. An expected outcome of the given approach is the development of fresh insight into the new topic of study, that is the factors of (in)effectiveness of police reform in Russia.
Analytical Approach
Patterns in evidence that will be detected through the integrative literature review will be analyzed with the help of the thematic analysis approach. Thematic analysis is traditionally employed in qualitative study designs and comprises several steps. Besides becoming familiar with evidence and data located for the study, as part of the analysis process, researchers are expected to generate and define themes (Scharp & Sanders, 2018). After that, one must select the appropriate exemplars from the datasets.
Themes as such can be defined as certain commonalities in reviewed information from disparate sources. In the present research project, the themes and categories will be primarily defined by using the concepts derived from the institutional theory of corruption. This theoretical framework will then guide the location of relevant exemplars (pieces of evidence) from the selected articles, as well as the process of categorization of major ideas related to the matter of interest.
Overall, the thematic analysis framework will be employed both to make the review of literature more coherent and to synthesize the theoretical concepts with evidence retrieved from the chosen primary sources. It may be argued that as a result of such an approach, it will be possible to make meaningful and credible conclusions regarding the factors inhibiting or determining the success of the anti-corruption reform in Russia.
Search Strategy
It is valid to say that within a few past decades, international researchers conducted and published a large number of materials on Russian police. According to Gladarev (2012), some of the most frequently covered themes in those studies are citizens’ attitudes towards police, police corruption, and human rights violations. Therefore, it will be relatively easy to locate background information on the topic. However, the number of publications on the effects of the recent police reform in Russia may not be that big, and the scarcity of empirical data may affect the final quality of study findings.
The total sample for the study will comprise at least twenty articles, and approximately half of them will be dedicated to the analysis of the effectiveness of anti-corruption policies in Russia and other states. To find the necessary materials and data sets, only online sources will be used, including such databases as JSTOR, ProQuest, and EBSCO. These databases provide access to a significant number of peer-reviewed and full-text scholarly articles on a great variety of subjects and areas of knowledge. A few examples of journals that contain the necessary evidence for the proposed research and that can be located through the identified databases are The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, Law & Society Review, and Policy and Society. More databases may be searched further to locate additional sources and increase the variety of materials to select from.
Keywords and Eligibility Criteria
To locate the relevant studies, the following keywords and key phrases will be used: “police corruption in Russia,” “Medvedev’s police reform effects,” and “2011 police reform in Russia.” The studies that will be included in the review are published within the period of the last twenty years. They focus on the evaluation of the Russian police system in terms of corruption, analysis of reform content and effects, and comparison of policy measures in various countries. While the preference will be given to empirical studies, secondary studies and literature reviews will be considered eligible for the present research as well due to a limited number of publicly available articles dedicated to the exploration of the effectiveness of Medvedev’s police reform.
Ethical Considerations
Every research project conducted with the use of human subjects requires a preliminary ethical review and approval by a human research ethics committee. Such measures are necessary to prevent any harm to study participants, show respect to people involved, and ensure research integrity (Newson & Lipworth, 2015). Therefore, elimination of any potentially unethical components from the study design ensures a better quality of procedures and, consequently, higher credibility and validity of findings.
When it comes to a research project that does not require the use of human subjects, a full ethical review is not needed. When utilizing data published by others, a researcher usually does not have access to sensitive and confidential information and, therefore, there is no risk of harm to anybody’s identity (Tripathy, 2013). However, while using such types of data, it is still essential to comply with ethical codes and principles. Firstly, the ownership of the original evidence must always be acknowledged since plagiarism is a major sign of researchers’ unprofessionalism (Tripathy, 2013).
Secondly, it is important to critically evaluate the retrieved data in terms of ethics and accuracy because any problems of that character may compromise the quality and trustworthiness of final research findings (Tripathy, 2013). Overall, work under ethical codes is a basic prerequisite for research fairness and integrity regardless of whether one collects empirical data or not. Thus, in the present study, authorship will be respected and publicly available information will be utilized responsibly.
Timetable
References
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Charles Sturt University. (2019). Literature review: traditional or narrative literature reviews. Web.
Chistyakova, C., & Robertson, A. (2012). YouTube cops and power without limits: Understanding police violence in 21st century Russia. Police Brutality & Police Reform in Russia and the CIS, (13). Web.
Galeotti, M. (2012). Purges, power and purpose: Medvedev’s 2011 police reforms. Police Brutality & Police Reform in Russia and the CIS, (13). Web.
Gerber, T., & Mendelson, S. (2008). Public experiences of police violence and corruption in contemporary Russia: A case of predatory policing? Law & Society Review, 42(1), 1-44.
Gladarev, B. (2012). Russian police before the 2010-2011 reform: A police officer’s perspective. Police Brutality & Police Reform in Russia and the CIS, (13). Web.
Kakachia, K., & O’Shea, L. (2012). Why does police reform appear to have been more successful in Georgia than in Kyrgyzstan or Russia? Police Brutality & Police Reform in Russia and the CIS, (13). Web.
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Tankebe, J. (2010). Public confidence in the police: Testing the effects of public experiences of police corruption in Ghana. The British Journal of Criminology, 50(2), 296-319.
Tripathy J. P. (2013). Secondary data analysis: Ethical issues and challenges. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 42(12), 1478-1479.