부패범죄의 원인과 대책

Abstract

In this report, I examined through the concept and the present condition of corruption crime and also reviewed the causes and countermeasures. The contents can be summarized by the following passages. First, to define the concept of corruption crime according to the general definition of corruption, it is the action of public officials abusing or misusing their status and authority for their private benefits. It is usually shown as a form of dereliction of duty, misfeasance, taking bribes, offering bribes, property crimes such as embezzlement and malfeasance in office. According to the official statistics and the survey, the crime rate has decreased compared to the past but is rising again. Second, the happening of corruption crimes in Korea is a result of both microscopic and macroscopic factors complex interacting. In other words, corruption crime is not only because of public officials' personal characters or values but also due to the structural factors and cultural traditions (in this case, the cultural feature of the public officials' organization) of the Korean society. Supreme power that cannot be regulated, incompleteness of rational and fair process, absence of fair rules, flaws in rational legal․institutional regulation device or the problems of the devices are included as the social structural factors. Nepotism, affective humanism or paternalism, culture of returning, practice of sending presents, family events culture, bureaucrat etc are the cultural traditions that cause corruption crimes. The pressure of conforming to organization standards which is also a cultural feature of Korea can be a cause of the crime, as well. In addition, despite the introduction of diverse legal․institutional regulation devices trying to eradicate corruption crimes for the past ten years in Korea, recently, the crime has been increasing instead. Hence, there is a need to establish a special organization against corruption in legal․institutional aspects or guarantee politic independence and grant the practical right to investigate. Moreover, a thorough prosecution to the public officials who committed crime of corruption, the maintenance of consistency and fairness in criminal justice system, modification and improvement in irrational rules are required. We also need to lead citizens to change their thoughts and reinforce norm consciousness by thoroughly and consistently taking judicial action of the corruption crimes induced by the social and cultural tradition of Korean society. Such fair and consistent criminal justice system will make it possible to change the public officials' perception and gradually improve the social, cultural traditions. Furthermore, to cope with the crimes in aspects of public officials' organization and duty, reasonable pay system and fair promotion system should be established, and cut off external pressures by thorough observation and punishment of politicians and senior officials. Conclusively, countermeasures to the corruption crime should help the public officials to perform their job responsibly in a healthy environment by changing the policies that cause the corruption instead of the negative regulations focused in punishment. Also because the measure for corruption crime takes reducing the crime rate it self as a primary goal, criminal prosecution and punishment is unavoidable, but ultimately under the vision of "Providing the service for citizen with low cost but high quality service."