Mr Moses Agaawena Amagnya1
1Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, Australia, 2Griffith Criminlogy Institute, Mount Gravatt, Australia, 3School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Mount Gravatt, Australia
This paper explores patterns and prevalence of corruption in Ghana’s criminal justice system. Corruption has serious consequences for policing, security, economic development and the rule of law. It is particularly concerning when it affects criminal justice institutions, as they are designed ultimately to control corruption by ensuring compliance with the law. Studies of corruption have reported that citizens of developing countries in Africa and elsewhere perceive their countries’ criminal justice institutions, especially the police and judiciary, to be among the most corrupt public institutions. However, little research has considered the views of criminal justice officials themselves regarding corruption patterns and prevalence. The current study explores the patterns and prevalence of corruption within Ghana’s criminal justice system based on expert interviews with 45 criminal justice personnel and 15 anti-corruption officials across three regions of Ghana: Greater Accra, Ashanti and Upper East. The results show that a majority of participants perceived corruption in Ghana as a serious problem; police were perceived as the most corrupt institution, and bail granting was perceived to be the most corrupt process. The implications of these findings for theory and policy are discussed.
Biography:
Moses Agaawena Amagnya is full-time international PhD Candidate and Tutor at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and a member of Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University, Australia. He is on scholarship from Griffith University. Moses was previously educated in his home country of Ghana where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Law and Sociology and in the United Kingdom where he obtained Master of Philosophy (MPhil) from the Cambridge University, which was under a full Cambridge Commonwealth Shared Scholarship. Moses research interests are in corruption and accountability, policing, criminal prosecution, traffic violations, and terrorism