NCJ Number
92737
Editor(s)
R P L Lee
Date Published
1981
Length
221 pages
Annotation
The seven papers in this volume address the causes and responses to corruption of public officials in Hong Kong, focusing on anticorruption administrative and legislative measures, social-historical issues, and case studies in revenue spending and law enforcement.
Abstract
The first presentation traces changes in laws against corruption, particularly bribery, and discusses their social implications. The author notes that recent laws have increased penalties, expanded investigative powers, developed evidential presumption of guilt, and shifted the burden of proof from the prosecution to the defense in some cases. A paper on the Independent Commission Against Corruption, created in 1974, shows that it is an independent and complex organization which has significantly changed social attitudes toward corruption and reduced corruption itself. The next author analyzes the folklore of corruption among different elements of Hong Kong's Chinese population and its origins in traditional Chinese culture. He then explores the people's reaction to the incongruence between the folklore and the legal definition of corruption, focusing on the issue of paying business commissions in the business sector. A survey of corruption in China's imperial bureaucracy from 1796 to 1911 concludes that unrealistic salaries, discretionary power, and overdependence of officials on subordinates are conducive to corruption and that corruption produces social unrest. Finally, one case study concerns the areas of revenue spending where people bribe officials to improve their access to public housing and teachers' jobs in a subsidized primary school. The other two case studies on police corruption discuss its causes and describe a police corruption syndicate. For separate papers, see NCJ 92738-39. All papers contain footnotes.