Corruption and Politics within the South Korean Government
| Author | Sung-Eun Byun,James M. Ruiz |
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijps.2007.9.3.226 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Corruption and politics within the South
Korean government
Sung-Eun Byun†and James M. Ruiz‡
†South Korea, Seoul, YoundDungPoGu Mullae 3ga54, LG XI APT 103-902 150-993. Email:
saebyul3@naver.com
‡(Corresponding author) Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg,
School of Public Affairs, Criminal Justice Program, 777 W. Harrisburg Pike, Middletown,
PA 17057, USA. Tel: 001-717 948 6292; email: jmr33@psu.edu
Received 4 May 2006; accepted 16 October 2006
Keywords: corruption, ethics, police reform, political corruption, S. Korea
Sung Eun Byun
is a Senior Inspector in the
South Korean National Police. He began his
career in criminal justice in the Internal Inspec-
tion Division of the South Korean National Police.
He is also a 2006 alumnus of the Master in
Criminal Justice Program at Pennsylvania State
University at Harrisburg.
James Ruiz
, PhD is an assistant professor of
Criminal Justice in the School of Public Affairs at
Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg. He
began his career in criminal justice as a police
officer with the New Orleans Police Department
in 1967 serving in the patrol, communications
and mounted divisions as well as the Emergency
Services Section and the National Crime
Information Center (NCIC) of the FBI. He retired
in 1985. His research interests include police
administration and supervision, ethics in polic-
ing, police interaction with persons with mental
illness, use of force, canine deployment, and the
Ku Klux Klan.
A
BSTRACT
The purpose of this study is (1) to examine cause
and effect relationships between bureaucratic cor-
ruption and personal, political, legal, and cultural
factors in South Korea; (2) to employ crimino-
logical theory in an attempt to explain each
relationship; and (3) to suggest policies for cor-
ruption prevention. Through analysing the official
crime report, Analytical Report on Crimes
from 1999 to 2004 issued annually by the
Prosecution Office of South Korea, this study
finds the following six relationships between cor-
ruption and factors. First, public officials with low
socio-economic status (SES) might be more likely
to commit crimes than those with high SES.
Second, married officials might be more likely to
commit crimes than those of any other marital
status. Third, public officials in law enforcement
departments are more likely to commit job-related
crimes than in any other departments. Fourth,
higher-ranked public officials are more likely to
commit job-related crimes than are lower-ranking
public officials. Fifth, arrested public officials are
less likely to be convicted than are regular cit-
izens. And, sixth, most crimes of public officials
might be influenced by organisational custom.
This study endeavours to apply three crimino-
logical theories: rational choice theory; control
theory; and conflict theory to the above findings
and to develop insight toward a corruption-free
society.
INTRODUCTION
Many people in other nations might recog-
nise that South Korea has accomplished an
amazing development since South Korea
rose from the ashes of the Korean War 55
years ago. However, some South Koreans
call their country ROTC which is an acro-
nym for the Republic of Total Corruption.
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 9 Number 3
Page 226
International Journal of Police
Science and Management,
Vol. 9 No. 3, 2007, pp. 226–243.
© Vathek Publishing,
1461–3557
This is a self-mocking term used by citizens
to express their views of the seriousness of
corruption within the South Korean gov-
ernment. The South Korean Ambassador to
the United States, for example, abruptly
resigned from his position in July 2005. This
occurred as a result of the release of taped
conversations of the ambassador engaging
in bribery. On one of those tapes, he was
heard playing a key role in funnelling illegal
funds from the Sam Sung Company to the
ruling party seven years previously when he
was the boss of a Korean newspaper. This
tremendous scandal has angered the South
Korean people, causing them to wonder if
government corruption will ever come to
an end. Although the people of South
Korea have achieved many exceptional
accomplishments since the Korean War,
they wonder why they continue to suffer
under the burden of government
corruption.
The purpose of the present study is to
explore the issue of corruption by public
officials in the South Korean gover nment.
It accomplishes this goal by first examining
the literature on prior studies associated
with corruption in a more general sense
and then by examining findings reported in
a South Korean gover nment report on
crimes. Several conclusions are reached
related to the study's findings and the impli-
cations of those findings are included.
FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH
CORRUPTION
Personality factors and corruption
The argument that crime has been caused
by individual characteristics is controversial.
Some say that most criminals have unique
characteristics such as aggressiveness when
compared with non-criminals. For exam-
ple, Betz (1995) argued that childhood
aggressive behaviour problems are impor t-
ant predispositions to later violent
offenders. On the other hand, others
theorise that all individuals with similarly
negative characteristics do not commit
crime. For example, Bohm (2001) argued
that many people have personal character-
istics related with criminality but do not
commit crime.
Before examining the kinds of personal
characteristics criminals possess, it should be
determined in advance whether there are
some differences between criminals and
non-criminals. In order to suggest the evid-
ence for the existence of differences
between criminals and non-criminals,
Kocsis (2004) took notice not of the differ-
ences themselves, but of the skills of crim-
inal profilers. If criminal profilers can more
easily distinguish criminals from non-
criminals than can lay people, perhaps it can
be said that there are some differences
between criminals and non-criminals.
According to the author, although police
agencies in many countries depend some-
what on their own profiling programmes in
investigations, until recently little evidence
for personality profiling had been found.
Thus, over a six-year period, Kocsis tested
approximately 450 participants who in-
cluded professional profilers, police detect-
ives, fire investigators, psychologists and
university students. Kocsis found evidence
to support the validity of profiling. Results
indicated that the profiler group was
superior to the other groups in accurately
predicting the characteristics of an
unknown offender.
Operating on the premise that Kocsis is
correct, the next problem is how to define
and measure the ‘invisible’ personalities of
individuals. Personality is not a tangible
thing such as a person’s height or weight.
Methods for overcoming this obstacle are
suggested in the following two personality
measurement tools.
Cattell, Cattell, and Cattell (1993) devel-
oped the Sixteen Personality Factor Ques-
tionnaire (16PF) to identify the primary
Byun and Ruiz
Page 227
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