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Introduction
Police corruption refers to “any type of proscribed behaviour engaged in by a law enforcement officer who receives or expects to receive, by virtue of his official position, an actual or potential unauthorised material reward or gain” (Roebuck and Barker, 1974, p. 118). Unlike other forms of corruption, police corruption involves police officers who are often armed, engaged in some undercover work and interaction with organised crime groups that enhances the opportunities for corruption in the trafficking of arms, drugs and humans (Holmes, 2014, p. xiii). As police corruption is “thriving and ubiquitous” (Holmes, 2014, p. xxxi), it is also a serious problem in many Asian countries.
This Asian Education and Development Studies (AEDS) special issue focuses on combating police corruption in Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan because of the limited research done and the availability of data on police corruption in these five Asian countries[1]. According to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) 2013, the perceived extent of police corruption was the highest in Indonesia (4.5), followed by the Philippines (4.0), Japan (3.8), Taiwan (3.7) and South Korea (3.2). In terms of ranking, the police were the most corrupt institution in Indonesia and the Philippines, ranked fourth in Taiwan and fifth in Japan and South Korea[2] (Hardoon and Heinrich, 2013, pp. 35-38).
In the first article in this AEDS special issue, Jon Quah explains why police corruption is widespread in Indonesia by analysing its causes and effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures. The second article by Eiji Oyamada analyses how the improvement of police salaries and implementation of police reforms have reduced the opportunities for police corruption in Japan. Eric Batalla identifies in the third article the causes of the systemic police corruption in the Philippines and explains why the anti-corruption measures initiated are ineffective. The fourth article by Jin-Wook Choi and Jina Bak examines the roots of police corruption in South Korea and evaluates the effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures. In the fifth article, Ernie Ko analyses the causes of police corruption and contends that the discipline-strengthening initiative has minimised police corruption in Taiwan. This paper summarises the findings of the five country studies by describing their contextual differences, analysing four of the principal causes of police...