Courts, culture and corruption
conduct is.7 A Kenyan report on judicial corruption also lists ‘sexual favours’ among forms of corrupt behaviour, but notes that it is the least prevalent,8 as does Namibia’s anti-corruption movement.9 A more probable conclusion is that it is the least reported.
Corruption in the justice system affects men and women differently All users of the justice system suffer the impact of corruption. Indices such as the TI Global Corruption Barometer give some indication of public sector corruption’s impact on ordinary people,10 but do not report results disaggregated by gender. Moreover, studies specific to the impact of justice-system corruption on ordinary people are few. The evidence is largely anecdotal. In the absence of systematised evidence, arguments that women suffer a disproportionate impact from judicial corruption tend to be based on intuitive, if plausible, claims. These can include: ● Women’s increased vulnerability to extortion and abuse of procedures on account of statistically lower literacy levels ● Women’s relatively weaker control of resources in a context where bribery has become a prerequisite to accessing justice institutions ● The statistical reality that women constitute a majority of the poor and therefore disproportionately suffer the impact of disinvestment in services on account of corruption.11 It is possible to build on arguments made in existing studies to substantiate the genderdifferentiated impact of corruption in the justice system in concrete cases. Four specific arguments are illustrated below.
Argument 1: Stigma reinforces corruption When a vulnerable group is also socially stigmatised, it is at higher risk of extortion where there are ambiguities in laws and procedures, or inadequate supervision to ensure accountability of ‘street-level’ officials implementing laws and procedures. This risk is reinforced by a low likelihood that the people affected will publicly challenge the behaviour of officials due to social stigma (see boxes 1 and 2).
7 United Republic of Tanzania, ‘Report of the Commission on Corruption’ (‘The Warioba Report’) (Dar-es-Salaam: 1996). 8 Government of Kenya, ‘Report of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Committee of the Judiciary of Kenya’ (the ‘Ringera Report’) (2003). For further information, see www.icj.org/news.php3?id_article 3112&lang en 9 See www.anticorruption.info/types.htm 10 See Global Corruption Barometer reports at www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/gcb 11 For examples, see www.u4.no/helpdesk/helpdesk/queries/query98.cfm; Lilian Ekeanyanwu, ‘Women in AntiCorruption: Impact of Corruption in the Judiciary on Nigerian Women’, paper prepared for the 10th International Anti-Corruption Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 7–11 October 2001; and GTZ, ‘Corruption and Gender: Approaches and Recommendations for TA. Focal Theme: Corruption and Trafficking in Women’ (2004), available at www.gtz.de/de/dokumente/en-corruption-and-gender.pdf
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