A Scoping Review on Perception-Based Definitions and Measurements of Corruption

Abstract

Studies on perceptions of corruption have grown in recent years but are still struggling with several conceptual and measurement issues. This scoping review provides an analysis of the peer-reviewed literature on perception-based corruption. From a total of 1,374 articles surveyed, 90 ultimately met inclusion criteria. We found two main quantifiable trends when exploring our sample: publications in high-impact journals were slow in addressing perception-based corruption, and perceptions of corruption are of interest not only to political science and sociology but to other disciplinary traditions. In more qualitative terms, we observe that the explicit or implicit definitions of “corruption” behind these studies tend to fall into two categories: corruption as a “Deviant Process” or as a “Deviant Outcome,” while measurements can be typified in a two-dimensional scheme: “Sociotropic” vs. “Egocentric” and “Generic” vs. “Specific.” Most measurement approaches surveyed tend to use a “deviant process” definition, whereas the measurement of corruption as a “deviant outcome” still lacks development. This might represent a challenge for future research focusing on the social understanding of corruption in various contexts (administrative, organizational, political, economic, legal, etc.).

Keywords:

• Corruption
• scoping review
• perceptions
• definition
• measurement

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Ana Filipa Albuquerque Madeira and Rui Costa Lopes, whose guidance and knowledge of the systematization of information were central to succeed in this endeavor.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 This meeting took place at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa on November 9, 2018.

2 This protocol was developed to search in English only.

3 Protocols used can be found in Table S1 of the Online Resource 1.

4 Duplicated entries were eliminated using JabRef version 4.3.1.

5 Articles published in Public Integrity were considered for analysis due to the relevance of the journal to the dedicated research on corruption issues and because the journal has appeared at the top-ranked quartiles of the SJR since 2019.

6 Table S2 of the Online Resource 1 presents the codebook used to catalog articles. The final list of all 90 articles considered for qualitative description is also available for consultation (Online Resource 2).

7 Considering the annual volume of PS peer-reviewed publications in the Web of Science (2019) for the period 1978–2018. Two waves of atypical increase were identified: one high publication growth rate of 15.87% in 2008; and another high growth rate of 33.34% in 2015.

Additional information

Funding

This work was developed under the auspices of the research project EPOCA: Corrupção e crise económica, uma combinação perigosa: compreender as interacções processo-resultado na explicação do apoio à democracia (Ref.: PTDC/CPO-CPO/28316/2017), funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal. Gustavo Gouvêa Maciel was also financed by the Doctoral Degree Scholarship Program of the University of Lisbon (Grantee no. 746/2018).