Essay
Crime and Development in Africa: Towards a Research Agenda and the Case of Corruption.
By Andrew M A Sankoh, Australia.
Introduction
Although African countries recognise the importance of studying crime, there is still very little research on crime in Africa. The lack of funding for social science research and focus on the development of other professions such as teachers, lawyers and doctors for the newly independent nations in Africa can be partially explained for this gap in knowledge. However, a few scholars have become pioneers of research on crime in Africa such as Kayira (1978), Clinard and Abbott (1973) and Clifford (1963). These research pioneers generally examined crime trends, amounts and distribution across various social groups in Africa. Other researchers such as Opolot (1981), Igbinova (1984) and Arthur (1989) have tried to understand how African social structures impact on criminal behaviour as well as the development of modern criminal justice institutions.
Modernization, dependency and routine activities theories are the dominant theoretical perspectives through which the relationship between crime and development is investigated. Firstly, the modernization approach emphasises on how the social structural changes such as (industrialisation, rapid urbanisation, breakdown in familial relations, increased economic development and population growth) impacted on levels and kinds of crime and criminal behaviour. The assumption of this theory is that these changes caused social disruption which lead to alienation and consequently criminal behaviour. The dependency theory sees underdevelopment such as poverty, unequal distribution of wealth and resources in Africa as tied to the development of industrialized countries. This theory assumes that the relationship between industrialized countries and Africa was one of economic exploitation which created one sided economy of export-oriented primary production and a rigid social structure dominated by a small elite and comprador allies.
The Routine Activity theory identifies the routine activities of individuals as an important factor to understanding the convergence of certain elements that facilitates the occurrence of crime. This theory identifies the change in people’s routine as rapid social changes occur as an explanation to understanding how this change in routine may facilitate or hinder the convergence of an offender, targets and capable guardians at the same time and same place. If the ‘development’ thesis argues that the development process causes a change in both social conditions and individual propensities, then one can argue that such a change will consequently have a specific relationship to crime from a routine activity perspective. So that development will increase the levels of crime and its mix will change. Property crime will increase and person crime will decrease.
However, one should note that describing and explaining crime and criminal activity in Africa is beset with a number of difficulties such as lack of reliable and accurate data as opined earlier. The essay now examines various definitions of corruption, the types of corruption and how they are manifested in various overt and covert relationships. This will help us understand how the transfer of power from colonial regimes to Áfrican elites without adequate development of modernised cultural norms through the rule of law, is partly to blame for the continued underdevelopment of Africa. The essay examines three cases in West Africa, countries that share borders and have impacted on their histories of development over a long period of time. These are Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. These three have a common boundary, the Mano river, and for some time had established a sub-regional body called the Mano River Union.
Corruption
In an indictment of Africa’s political history, the Commission for Africa expressed how corruption has become a problem that is causing more underdevelopment in Africa. It states:
“Africa has suffered from governments that have looted the resources of the state; that could not or would not deliver services to their people; that in many cases were predatory, corruptly extracting their countries’ resources that maintained control through violence and bribery; and that squandered and stole aid.”
This indictment of Africa’s political history outlines the systemic problem of corruption in Africa. A review of a few definitions of corruption can help us understand how corruption is manifested in various social and economic relations. Bayley argues that “corruption, while being tied particularly to the act of bribery, is a general term covering misuse of authority as a result of considerations of personal gain, which need not be monetary”.
Merlin simply refers to corruption by public officers of the state as “diversion of public resources to non-public purposes." Wilson writes: “Corruption occurs whenever a person in exchange for some private advantage, acts other than as his [sic] duty requires”. A later definition by Findlay echoes Wilson’s perspective when he writes: “Corruption is a product of the giving and receiving of advantage in illegitimate or exploitative contexts." Findlay argues that in order for us to understand corruption in its various cultural contexts, we need to recognise that:
corruption takes the form of a relationship
corruption as a market reality
the influence of corruption over profit
that morality is not an essential consideration for the definition of corruption
as networks of trust are distinctly culturally relative than what comprises a violation of trust for a corrupt purpose is heavily dependent on the cultural location of the relationship in question.
As we will see from the case studies, Findlay’s interpretation helps us understand why firms in Sierra Leone and Liberia honour corrupt practices with state officers even when they know that it is morally wrong to do so.
Transparency International distinguished two types of corruption: “According to the rule” corruption and “against the rule” corruption. This distinction helps in understanding governmental corruption. ‘According to the rule’ corruption is a kind of corruption where a person bribes an officer to receive preferential treatment for something the officer is required to do by law. Whereas as ‘Against the rule’ corruption is where an officer receives a bribe for doing something that is prohibited by law.
Nye offers a wide ranging but somewhat ambiguous definition. It was an attempt in my view to capture the nature and form of corruption and under what forms of relationships it’s likely to occur when he defines corruption as:
“ …..behaviour which deviates from the formal duties of public role because of private-regarding (personal, close family, private clique) pecuniary or status gains; or violates rules against the exercise of certain types of private-regarding influence. This includes such behaviour as bribery (use of reward to pervert the judgment of a person of trust); nepotism (bestowal of patronage by reason of ascriptive relationship rather than merit); and misappropriation (illegal appropriation of public resources for private-regarding uses)."
Four major categories of corruption have been outlined and they are important in evaluating governmental corruption as it takes one or all of these typologies; Cost-reducing corruption: A type of corruption where civil servants reduce the regulated cost of a service below its normal level. Mbaku notes that this type of corruption may include “ illegal reduction of a private company’s tax obligations to the state, and the exemption of an enterprise from compliance, with certain statutes and rules." This means that such a reduction in a firm’s transaction cost may generate funds that can then be divided between the civil servant and the firm owner based on an agreed formula.
Cost-enhancing corruption:
This is a type of corruption where a civil servant can use the state’s coercive force to illicitly appropriate private property through illegal taxation for his personal benefit. Mbaku argues that in Africa, governments foist price ceilings on foodstuffs thereby creating artificial scarcity. Civil servants who are in charge of states’ stock of food would then attempt to extract rents from consumers by charging a price that approximates the free market price.
Benefit-enhancing corruption:
Civil servants in the course of their duties may permit more public benefits to an individual or group than are legally permitted. This is normally done with the expectations that such benefits are then shared with the civil servants.
Benefit-reducing corruption:
This is the illegal appropriation of public benefits due to citizens for personal gain by civil servants. Mbaku claims that this is generally manifested where a manager of for example a state pension fund can delay the transmission of retirement benefits to pensioners, deposit the funds first into an interest-bearing account for his own benefit.
These typologies of corruption explain why corruption is difficult to prove in countries where data management of institutions both formal and informal are rudimentary or nonexistent. However, an examination of the World Bank Enterprise survey reports for Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia can help provide indicative evidence of corruption. The surveys are conducted by the World Bank and its partners across geographic regions and cover small, medium and large companies. The surveys are administered to a representative sample of firms in the non-agricultural formal private economy. The sample is consistently defined in all countries and includes the manufacturing sector and the service sector. Government services and financial sectors are excluded in the sample. The survey collects both qualitative and quantitative information through interviews with firm managers and owners regarding the business environment and productivity of their firms. The topics covered range from infrastructure, trade, finance, regulations, taxes and business licensing, corruption, crime and informality and perceptions about obstacles to doing business.
In both Liberia and Sierra Leone, the surveys were conducted in 2009 with 150 firms in each country. In Sierra Leone, the percentage of firms that identified corruption as a main obstacle are 9% while in Liberia 53.2%. The percentage of firms that identified crime, theft and disorder as obstacle are for Sierra Leone 0.8% and Liberia 2.8%. In Guinea, the survey was conducted in 2006 and 2.9% of firms identified corruption as a problem and 1.8% identified crime and disorder as a problem.
The survey reports for Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2009 are more detailed than the Guinean survey in 2006. The percentage of firms who expected to give gifts in meetings with Tax Inspectors is 8.6% for Sierra Leone and 54.4% for Liberia. Firms who expected to give gifts to secure a government contracts are 33.9% for Sierra Leone and 51.6% for Liberia. Firms expected to give gifts to get a construction permit are 42.8% for Sierra Leone and 62.9% for Liberia. Firms expected to give gifts to get an import license are 2.8% for Sierra Leone and 46.0% for Liberia. Firms expected to give gifts to get an operating license are 8.7% for Sierra Leone and 49.6% for Liberia. Firms who believe that the court system is fair, impartial and uncorrupted are 29.7% for Sierra Leone and 44.3% for Liberia.1
According to the above statistics, there seems to be more acknowledgement of corruption in Liberia than Sierra Leone. I explore Sierra Leone’s case in more detail to reflect on how the coexistence of traditionalism and modernisation causes contradictions between traditional values of collectivism and modern values of individualism.
Thompson and Potter examined in detail governmental corruption in Sierra Leone. They defined governmental corruption as "behaviour of public officials which deviates from accepted norms in order to serve private ends". They argue that modernisation provided a opportunistic environment for governmental corruption in Sierra Leone. The British colonisation of Sierra Leone brought with it the skeleton of modern institutions. Therefore, even after independence Sierra Leone had the basic features of a modern state: a modern economic structure, a constitutional system though of western orientation, a legal system which reflected the the English common law tradition, an educational system also of British orientation as books used were mainly reflecting British culture, a public service that was a direct camera of the public service of England and a national defence and internal security institution organised along modern lines.
Thomson and Potter maintained that the social system was dominated by traditionalism. The modern state with its English Law had failed to provide the needed impetus to engineer the necessary desirable changes required to support it. In most of the rural areas of the country, customary law, rights, duties and liabilities were still been defined by customary norms and values. The slight shifts from traditional values of collectivism to individualism inculcated through a western form of education created a clash caused by the general acceptance of universalistic and achievement-based norms. This situation changed the dynamics of relationships and loyalties. As Sierra Leoneans see themselves now as having equal rights against the state and equal obligations to the state and at the same time there was a persistence of culturally structured norms.
Conclusion
This discussion paper has reviewed the few available literature on crime and development in Africa. Although the theorists are themselves not Africans, they have introduced a research agenda that should have been followed by African scholars if funding was largely available for such research. It is not surprising that the recommendations made by such scholars are largely Eurocentric. Clinard and Abbot recommended that third world countries should adopt the apartheid pass law system as a way to reduce urban crime by controlling the population more rigorously, apart from the fact that such laws have since been recognised as part of crimes against humanity called apartheid. The comparative lack of research concerning African criminology and the non-mainstream nature of pre-colonial Black History provide the basis for the apparent lack of examination of historical criminology in West Africa.
The question is whether African students should be encouraged to study the science with which their countries were subjugated for centuries, given that criminological technologies have been used to control people of African descent disproportionately for centuries. Starting from the Trans-Sahara slave trade by Arabs to Trans-Atlantic Slavery by Europeans, Africans have borne the brunt of the most unimaginable crimes ever known to humanity by the United Nations. One wonders then why criminology would have gone for so long without an African perspective. I will advance the argument from the research on corruption that African elites are fearful of promoting a criminological agenda as this will itself constitute an opposition to those in power. However, I embark on a criminological journey to advance this agenda as I believe that African scholars have a lot to say that is relevant to both the discipline and to criminologists.
For more on some of the issues raised here, please consult the references I have provided below:
References:
Agbiboa, D. E. (2010). The Corruption-Underdevelopment Nexus in Africa: Which Way Nigeria? Journal of Social Political and Economic Studies, 34 (5) 474-509.
Althuser, L., and Balibar, E. (1970) Reading Capital, New Left Books, London.
Arthur,J. (1989) Colonial influence and political development in an African country. Criminal Justice International, 4: 9-16
(1991) Development and Crime in Africa: A Test of Modernisation Theory, Journal of Criminal Justice Vol. 19, pp. 499-513.
Arthur, J. A. and Marenin, O. (1995) Explaining Crime in developing countries: The need for a case study approach, Crime, Law and Social Change 23: 191-214.
Bayley, D. H. (1966). The effects of corruption in developing nations. The Western Political Quarterly, 19 (4), 719-732.
Clifford, W. (1963) The Evaluation of methods for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquents in Africa south of the Sahara, British Journal of Criminology, 4 (2) 477-86
Clinard, M., and Abbot, D. (1973) Crime in Developing Countries, John Wiley and Sons, New York
Cohen, L. E. and Felson, M. (1979) Social Change and Crime Rate Trends: A Routine Activity Approach. American Sociological Review. Vol. 44, pp. 588-608.
Commission for Africa (2005). Our Common Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa, HMG, London.
Findlay, M. (2007) Misunderstanding Corruption and Community: Comparative Cultural politics of Corruption regulation in the Pacific, Asian Journal of Criminology 2 (1) 47-56.
Igbinova, P. (1984), Criminology in Africa, International Journal of Justice Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 3, 11-19.
Mbaku, J. M. (2000). Ethnicity, Constitutionalism and Governance in Africa. In J. M. Mbaku, P. O. Agbese and M. Kimenyi (eds), Ethnicity and Governance in the Third World, Ashgate, England, pp. 60-99.
Nye, J. S. (1967). Corruption and Political Development: A Cost Benefit Analysis, The American Political Science Review, 61 (2) 417-427.
Opolot, J. (1981) Crime in the new states of Africa, American University Press, Washington D. C.
Thompson, B. and Potter, G. (1997) Governmental Corruption in Africa: Sierra Leone as a case study, Crime, Law and Social Change 28, 137-154.
Transparency International (2006). Global Corruption Barometer, from http://www.transparency.org/ viewed 28 June 2013.
Van KLaveren. J. (1990). The concept of Corruption. In A. J. Heidenheimer, M. Johnston and V. T. Levine (eds), Political Corruption: A Handbook. NJ: Transaction, New Brunswick.
Werlin, H. H. (1973). The consequences of Corruption: The Ghanain experience. Political Science Quarterly, 88(1), 77-85.
Wilson, J. Q. (1968). Corruption is not always Scandalous. New York Times Magazine, April 28, pp. 54, 57.
World Bank (2009) Enterprise Survey: Sierra Leone Country Profile www.enterprisesurveys.com
Editor’s Note: Andrew Sankoh (photo), from Sierra Leone, teaches at the University of Western Sydney College, Australia. He is a specialist in Social Sciences with emphasis on Criminology. He holds a Masters degree in Criminology from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Science with Honours from FBC, University of Sierra Leone. He is currently working towards establishing an African Centre of Criminology Research and Training in Sierra Leone.
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