Introduction

The previous chapter provided an overview of the challenges related to post-conflict policing under post-conflict reconstruction and SSR initiatives. A variety of conflict-stricken and developing contexts were illustrated to demonstrate that when corruption and criminality within the police forces are high, reformists face a number of problems, and their attempt to reshuffle policies, as evident with COIN, can result in ambiguity in policing mandates. This uncertainty is particularly evident with the contention between militarising the police force to fight insurgency and community policing, in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

This chapter covers the theoretical framework of the political, economic and cultural drivers of corruption. A political economy approach on corruption examines the political drivers and economic coping strategies of low-paid police officers. Associated with the cultural drivers, police culture, motivation and emotional investment in policing and the socialisation processes of corrupt behaviour and shortcomings in training to deter corrupt practices are addressed.

Examining the drivers of corruption

According to the ideals of a liberalist society, the police are pivotal actors for law enforcement, which is part of SSR and the rule of law. This book provides an investigation of the situated economic, cultural and political conditions and motivations for corruption in the lower levels of the Afghan police force. The cultural category is usually ignored from the study of corruption in post-conflict reconstruction because the focus on state corruption merely covers the political and economic causes and consequences of corruption based on individual gain rather than institutional benefit. The interrelationship between the three drivers help to generate an integrated understanding of the causes and consequences of corruption rather than solely forming an additional typology of police corruption or testing for integrity violations.

Political drivers

The political drivers of corruption are divided into four sub-categories that are discussed thematically here and then linked to the context of Afghanistan. These components include: the structural causes of corruption; nepotism and patronage; state capture; and ethnic favouritism.

Structural causes of corruption

Systemic corruption concerns high-level or grand corruption. Like institutional corruption, systemic corruption concerns certain situations in a society or institutions that are entrenched with corruption from the senior to the lower levels due to lack of law enforcement and absent controls.