Sexual corruption. Understanding, measuring and preventing abuse of power for sex

If a teacher offers a student a grade in exchange for a sexual act, or a police officer refrains from detaining a person in exchange for sex, this is not only sexually inappropriate behaviour. It is also corruption, i.e. the abuse of a position of power for personal gain. This phenomenon is known as sexual corruption and occurs in many parts of the world. Despite this, sexual corruption often falls between the lines of responsibility.

Based on the research project Sexual Corruption, funded by the Swedish Research Council, we are now building a large and long-term research environment to contribute new knowledge on how sexual corruption can best be understood, measured and prevented. The focus lies on the sectors of higher education and the judiciary, first in South Africa and Scandinavia and later on with a wider scope. The research environment will also contribute to identifying legislation that can be used to prosecute sexual corruption internationally, and to safe forms of reporting and preventing sexual corruption. The project is carried out in collaboration with the Quality of Government Institute (QoG), Transparency International (TI), and the UNCAC Coalition, three leading international actors in the fight against corruption.

Research leader Elin Bjarnegård says:

I really value the opportunity to lead the development of a research environment and knowledge hub around sexual corruption. Building on our previous and ongoing work, and collaborating with world-leading experts in both academia and policy, I am confident that we will significantly improve knowledge, data and prevention measures. Sex is a missing piece in the corruption puzzle.