Psychological Theories of Explanation of Corruption

  • A. Vozniuk

    Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Head of the Scientific Laboratory on the Problems Combating Crime of the Educational and Research Institute No. 1 of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, Kyiv, Ukraine

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3352-5626

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the potential use of different psychological theories in explaining corrupt behavior in further use of the results obtained in the development of tactics and strategy of counteraction of corruption. Methodology is a set of scientific methods, namely: terminology, systematic and structural, formal-logical, comparative-legal. Theoretical grounds of research include the works of foreign scientists, which take up some of the theory and concepts of interpreting psychological foundations of corruption and measures to counter it. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that it has systematized and analyzed the advantages, disadvantages and the capabilities of a single modern theories and concepts that explain corrupt behavior and formulated the need for the formation of a comprehensive theory able to cover the various determinants that cause this negative social phenomenon. According to the results of the conducted research, have been formulated the following conclusions: 1) the existence of the doctrine (theories, concepts) of the interpretation of the psychological bases of corruption behavior and measures to counter it (the theory of psychic dependence on undue benefit (bribery), the theory of convenience, symbolic interactionism, cognitive psychology, the theory of correlation of corruption, theory of the "principal-agent",“collective action” theory, institutional multiplicity theory, moral decay theory; 2) the disadvantages of modern approaches to explaining corruption through psychology (their one-sided nature: each researcher usually justifies one theory and denies the other or any other); 3) the need to combine elements of different doctrines that explain corruption behavior and to create a theory capable of explaining corruption most optimally and fully from psychological point of view.

Keywords: corruption; psychological theory; cognitive psychology; social psychology; psychological mechanism of corruption; bribery; symbolic interactionism; institutional multiplicity; counteracting corruption.

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Author Biography

A. Vozniuk

Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Head of the Scientific Laboratory on the Problems Combating Crime of the Educational and Research Institute No. 1 of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, Kyiv, Ukraine


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PDF Downloads: 519
Published
2020-01-16
Section
Theoretical and methodological issues of legal psychology