Public Perceptions of Police Corruption in South Korea

• In Event: Perceptions of Police Legitimacy in South Korea

Abstract

Using multivariate analyses on cross-sectional data from the International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) conducted on a probability sample of adults in South Korea’s capital Seoul (N=2043), this study tries to identify the level of perceived police misconduct and the factors most likely to predict variations in the public perceptions of police corruption at the beginning of this century. Findings show that despite the fact that only 3.4% of the residents declared that in the year preceding the survey they had to bribe government or public officials in order to receive help they were entitled to by law, about 40% of those who were victims of corruption, were victimized by the police. Results indicate that victims of property and violent crime, victims of bribery, persons who think police are not doing a good job and/or are not approachable tend to perceive police as a corrupt institution. However, the variable that contributes the most to the explanatory power of the statistical model is the perceived overall corruption of public institutions, other than the police. The implications of the findings will be also briefly discussed.

Authors

• Leah Shon, University of Louisville

• Viviana Andreescu, University of Louisville