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Urban crime and violence: Conditions and trends59CorruptionAlthough it comes in many forms, corruption is generallyclassified as a crime against public order. There is no universallyaccepted definition of corruption; but it has beensummarized as the abuse of public power for personalgain. 67 It constitutes a growing threat to human security andplays a significant role in urban development, planning,management, and programme design and policy. Corruptionmay be found at the ‘grand scale’, penetrating the highestpolicy-making organs of government, or it may be seen at‘petty’ or street-scale levels, which involve day-to-day publicand social transactions. It often involves soliciting, giving ortaking bribes and is sometimes categorized by levels of ‘infiltration’within the public sector. While grand corruption hasthe broadest impacts on societies, corruption in any formhelps to destroy public confidence in the fairness of government,the rule of law and economic stability. 68 There areseveral measures of corruption. Among the most widely usedare the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) and the GlobalCorruption Barometer (GCB), both developed byTransparency International. Each is discussed briefly below.■ The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)The Corruption Perceptions Index calculates a score on theperceived levels of corruption in a given country, based onthe responses of business people and analysts around theworld, including local experts resident in the country beingevaluated. The CPI has a range of between 10 (highly clean)and 0 (highly corrupt). A higher score means less perceivedcorruption. The map in Figure 3.13 shows the ranking for158 countries. It indicates that the top ten ranked countries(least corrupt countries) are wealthy European and Oceanicnations, headed by Iceland. The bottom ten ranked countriesconsist largely of poor and developing nations of EasternEurope, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, with Bangladesh andChad being the lowest ranked. 71■ The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB)The Global Corruption Barometer provides an indication ofthe extent and nature of corruption from the perspective ofordinary people or the general public around the world.Findings from the 2005 GCB based on a survey of 54,260people in 69 countries noted that political parties, parliaments,the police and the judicial system were the mostcorrupt. 70 Figure 3.14 illustrates the distribution ofresponses among sectors in this regard. Religious bodies,non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and registry andpermit services are considered the least corrupt sectors.Although the responses vary by region, 62 per cent ofthe countries surveyed reported that political parties werethe most corrupt sector. This trend has increased since2004, when 58 per cent of nations saw political parties asthe most corrupt. As Table 3.2 indicates, when consideredon a regional basis, Asian, Western European and LatinAmerican citizens saw their political parties as the mostcorrupt, while African respondents judged their police to bethe sector most corrupt. In Central and Eastern Europe,political parties and the police tied for first place as the mostcorrupt sectors.Box 3.1 Violence against women in South AfricaSouth Africa has one of the highest incidences of violence against women (and children) in theworld. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data on crimes reported by thepolice indicate that 123.84 rapes per 100,000 individuals were committed in 2000. This is one ofthe saddest and most alarming manifestations of violence in a society generally regarded astraumatized and wracked by violent crime and (very often) violent interpersonal and publicbehaviour. Although the causes of the high levels of violence in South African society aremanifold and complex, they broadly relate to the country’s violent history of colonialism andapartheid. One can also safely assume that the high levels of poverty and unemployment in thecountry and the resultant economic hardships and frustrations add to the already volatile socialand political atmosphere. In addition, patriarchal attitudes, which we share with other societies,make it particularly difficult for women to attain economic independence. As a result, manywomen are unable to permanently leave their abusive partners, thus failing to protectthemselves and their children from physical, sexual, emotional, economic and other forms ofabuse.Source: Zambuko and Edwards, 2007Petty corruption in the way of bribery is widespread,but affects poorer countries more significantly than richerones, with some families in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeriareporting that they spend at least the equivalent of 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita on bribery‘taxes’. Of special significance to urban dwellers are thebribes paid for services that they would normally be entitledto receive since they tend to be larger recipients of servicesthan rural residents. Figure 3.15 shows the variation inservice bribery among surveyed nations. Former socialistnations such as Lithuania, Romania, Russia and Ukraine tendto top the lists.Corruption is closely linked with organized crime.Indeed, the two have been characterized as ‘two sides of thesame coin’. 71 Research on the connections between corruptionand organized crime suggests that socio-economicfactors such as poverty, unemployment, societal wealth,income inequality, the pattern of public investment thatbenefits citizens’ quality of life, levels of judicial independence,independence of civil servants, and the strength ofBox 3.2 Street families and street children in NairobiPetty corruption inthe way of bribery iswidespread, butaffects poorercountries moresignificantly thanricher onesOne of the major challenges facing urban development in Kenya is the growing number of streetfamilies. It is estimated there were approximately 115 street children in 1975. By 1990 thisnumber had grown to 17,000 and by 1997 over 150,000. 72 In 2001, the number was estimatedto be 250,000 street children countrywide. 73 With older street dwellers included, the totalpopulation of street persons was estimated at approximately 300,000. The bulk of such streetdwellers are found in Nairobi, which at present has approximately 60,000 street persons. Streetfamilies live permanently or part time in the central business district area streets, bonded by acommon identity and involved in organized street survival activities within given operational‘territories’. These families operate in environments that lack protection and supervisionmechanisms available in normal social settings.The survival activities include begging, albeit forcefully, pick pocketing and stealing, childprostitution, and the use and trafficking of drugs. Consequently, the public generally perceivesstreet persons as criminals, thieves, drug addicts and eyesores that should be removed from thestreets. Citizens feel that most ills are the responsibility of criminals who were previously streetchildren. The public has no mechanisms to respond to the manifestations and causes of crimeby street children – hence, their fear and over-generalizations.Source: Masese, 2007