What factors are associated with public corruption perception? Evidence from Canada
| Date | 28 July 2023 |
| Pages | 524-544 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-04-2023-0078 |
| Published date | 28 July 2023 |
| Author | Joseph Yaw Asomah,Eugene Emeka Dim,Yiyan Li,Hongming Cheng |
What factors are associated with
public corruption perception?
Evidence from Canada
Joseph Yaw Asomah
Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Canada
Eugene Emeka Dim
Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Yiyan Li
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, and
Hongming Cheng
Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
Abstract
Purpose –Corruption perception is essential to study because it can shape people’s attitudes toward the
government. Thus,the purpose of this paper is to address this key question: what factors are associatedwith
a non-expert’sjudgment of whether Canada is corrupt?
Design/methodology/approach –This study uses the World Value Survey conducted in Canada in
October 2020. Thissurvey is based on a nationally representative sampleof a cross-section of adult Canadian
residents, including Canadiancitizens and permanent residents and those who are neither Canadian citizens
nor permanentresidents.
Findings –Based on this study, some conclusionscan be made. First, people accessing corruption news from the
traditional news media are less likely than those receiving info rmation from the new media to perceive the state (in
this case, Canada) as corrupt. Second, people who have less confidence in public institutions are more likely to
perceive a country as corrupt. Third, people who participate in electoral and non-electoral forms of political
participation are more likely to perceive the state and its public officials as corrupt. Fourth, regardless of which
political party is in power, individuals who lean right politically are more likely than those on the left to perceive the
state as corrupt. Finally, immigrants are less likely than those born in Canada to perceive the state as corrupt. This
work enriches the literature on the substantive understanding of the factors associated with corruption perception.
Originality/value –Studies investigatingfactors associated with public perception of corruption tendto
focus on developing countries. The currentstudy contributes to filling this gap in knowledge by examining
correlates of corruption perception in Canada. As a result, this study contributesto the literature on factors
associatedwith corruption perception, especiallyin the developed country context.
Keywords Corruption perception, Corruption information sources, Immigration status,
Political participation, Political ideology, Trust in government
Paper type Research paper
The authors thank the Journal of Financial Crime editors and reviewers for their time and usefulcomments.
Funding: The authors did not receive any funding or grant from any person, agency or organization for
this work.
Declarations/conflict of interest: The authors did not receive funds, grants or other support or benefits
from any organization for the submitted work. Therefore, they have no conflict of interest in any form or
kind as far as this manuscript is concerned.
JFC
31,3
524
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.31 No. 3, 2024
pp. 524-544
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-04-2023-0078
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1359-0790.htm
Introduction
Corruption, which generally means an abuse of power to serve private agendas, is a global
problem, and it occurs in both private and public sectors (Asomah, 2019,2021;Charron,
2014;Friesenbichler et al.,2018;Melgar et al.,2010;Vadlamannati and Cooray, 2017;Zhang
et al.,2019;Zheng et al., 2017). In this sense, corruption involves “wrongly getting an
advantage, pecuniary or otherwise, in violation of official duty and the rights of others”
(Melgar et al., 2010, p. 121). Every year, Transparency International (2022a) releases
Corruption Perception Index(CPI), ranking 180 countries based on the individual countries’
perceived levels of public-sector corruption. This CPI is based on surveys from experts and
business leaders.
Although corruption perception may not reflect the actual corruption levels (de Lancer
Julnes and Villoria, 2014), it can shape how people view theirgovernments’commitment to
combating corruption. As a result, it is critical to examine factors influencing corruption
perception. Also, as the CPI uses surveysfrom experts and business leaders (Transparency
International, 2022b), it will be intriguing to investigate corruption perception levels based
on the general population and examine especially key predictors of citizens’corruption
perception levels. For instance, whereas the CPI indicates that Canada is one of the least
corrupt countries, Atkinson (2011) shows that respondents perceive Canada to be more
corrupt. This contradiction is not surprising because the CPI is based on expert opinion,
while Atkinson’s (2011) work is not because the latter rests on public opinion. But, apart
from being a non-expert, are there other factors (such as political ideology and sources of
corruption information) associated with a non-expert’s judgment of whether Canada is
corrupt? For this reason, investigating factors associated with Canadian’s perception of
corruption can enrich the literature. Additionally, while some previous studies (Navia et al.,
2020;Weng et al.,2015;Wroe et al.,2013) have examined the perception of corruption in
some countries, none has focused on the Canadian context. For example, Navia et al. (2020)
focused on Guatemala; they found that age, education and right-wing ideology and
retrospective economic outlook are vital factors associated with corruption perception.
Corruption perception is essential to study because it can shape people’s attitudes toward
the government.
Based on the Canadian case, this article uses the 2020 World Value Survey (WVS) to
investigate the possiblefactors shaping the public perception of corruption in Canada. Using
the Canadian case as an empirical example, this article enriches the literature on the
substantiative understanding of the key factors associated with corruption perception. For
instance, political participation is associated with corruption perception (Giommoni, 2021;
Stockermer, 2017;Školník,2021). Yet, few studies pay attention to the influences of electoral
(like voting) and non-electoral (e.g. petitioning, protests, boycotts and strikes) forms of
political participation on the perception of corruption. This study includes these forms of
political participation. Additionally, this article examines the impact of political leaning,
trust in the government, media exposure and immigration status on the perception of
corruption in Canada. Thus, by analyzingthe Canadian data, the current work enriches the
literature on the substantiveunderstanding of the factors shaping corruption perception.
Perception of corruption –theory and previous research
Whether citizens believe that corruption is high or low in their country may depend on
factors like media exposure, political participation, trust in government, political ideology
and socio-demographic variables (e.g. education, race/ethnicity and age). This section
discusses the critical corruption perception factors in the literature and presents the
hypotheses to be investigatedin the current study.
Public
corruption
perception
525
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