Corruption in law enforcement agencies: causes and system of countermeasures

Abstract

Corruption has always been a negative phenomenon that significantly deformed the institutional purpose of state institutions and undermined the public's trust in them. Unfortunately, the issue of corruption in law enforcement agencies has always been particularly acute. Moreover, right now, in the conditions of a full-scale war, it is the law enforcement agencies that must stand in defense of the internal sovereignty, national unity of the state, and ensure the protection and functioning of various state mechanisms. It is worth noting that the institutional structure of the law enforcement system is constantly changing, against the background of which institutions are created, the purpose of which is the direct prevention of corruption and corrupt acts. The classic approach consists in assigning a specific body of state power to law enforcement agencies based on the actual performance of law enforcement functions.
 The need and relevance of the criminological characterization of the causes and the importance and urgency of developing a system of anti-corruption measures in law enforcement agencies are substantiated.
 Corruption offenses committed by law enforcement agencies are most often various deviations and violations of the current legislation regulating law enforcement and law enforcement activities of these agencies. We see the high latency of corruption offenses as the main cause of corruption in this area; personnel problems and deformation of the role and meaning of the management team. Measures to combat corruption in internal affairs bodies include: optimization of the recruitment process; improvement of internal and external communication channels for whistleblowers; promotion of departmental financial supervision of the life of law enforcement officers, and constant training and improvement of qualifications of each law enforcement officer, the need to pass a real annual psychological certification.
 It is concluded that the development of anti-corruption measures should not be of a general nature. More effective is precisely the targeted approach, based on the identified causes and conditions of corruption in a separate sphere, in this case, the sphere of activity of law enforcement agencies, and specific industry-oriented, targeted anti-corruption measures developed based on these determinants.