ABSTRACT
At the onset, it is essential to emphasize that police corruption is a secretive phenomenon. Such practices not only are perpetrated in clandestine ways but also often go unreported due to fear and intimidation of those affected and reciprocal benefits derived through bribing. Corruption in the police is not confined to developing societies as this volume makes clear. However, common among all is the fact that corruption is endemic in a sizable majority of police organizations (Newburn 1999). In South Africa, the testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by a high-ranking officer in the former apartheid police force recounted widespread corruption. Now, more than two decades after the first universal franchise election in South Africa and a completely transformed police service, there is still mounting evidence of grand-scale corruption in the police. In its own documents, for example,
Background ..........................................................................................................110 Theoretical Context: Systems Theory and Reciprocal Moral Dualism.........112
