Beyond Harassment: The Political Economy and Institutional Mechanics of Sexual Corruption

Abstract

While the field of corruption studies has grown significantly in recent years, "sexual corruption" - the abuse of entrusted power for sexual gain – remains understudied. Often conflated with sexual harassment, this phenomenon represents a distinct form of governance failure. This panel interrogates the institutional conditions that enable sexual corruption and evaluates interventions designed to disrupt it. Bringing together original data from South Africa, Tanzania, Ukraine, and Burkina Faso, the panel moves beyond descriptive accounts to analyze the interplay between hierarchy, lack of "exit" options, and defective accountability mechanisms. The panel opens with a paper which maps the topography of sexual corruption across South Africa’s public sectors. Utilizing novel survey data, the authors challenge the assumption that this form of corruption is uniform, finding instead that it spikes in sectors characterized by high coercion (law enforcement) and limited citizen alternatives. This quantitative baseline sets the stage the next paper which shifts the lens to the discursive framing of the problem in Ukrainian higher education. The authors argue that misclassifying sexual corruption merely as "harassment" depoliticizes the act, effectively removing it from the jurisdiction of powerful anti-corruption agencies and shielding perpetrators from criminal liability. Having established the prevalence and definitional challenges, the panel turns to institutional mechanics. The next paper employs a Feminist Institutionalist framework to explain the persistent failure of anti-corruption reforms in Tanzania. The authors introduce a novel "accountability matrix" to demonstrate how current interventions prioritize "downward" accountability - burdening victims with the responsibility of resistance - while leaving the "upward" accountability of elites untouched. The final paper offers experimental evidence on the effectiveness of an anti-sexual corruption intervention carried out in Burkina Faso. Focusing on female entrepreneurship, this paper presents results from a pilot intervention and the design of a full-scale Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), testing whether informational and skills-based training can effectively protect vulnerable citizens from predatory public officials. This panel is methodologically pluralistic, combining Large-N Survey Analysis (South Africa), Feminist Institutionalist Theory & Case Study (Tanzania), Qualitative Discourse Analysis (Ukraine) and Field Experimentation/RCT (Burkina Faso) By triangulating these approaches, the panel represents a significant advance in our understanding of sexual corruption. It argues that combating sexual corruption requires more than gender mainstreaming; it demands a fundamental restructuring of the power asymmetries that allow public officials to leverage state authority for private sexual gratification.

Title	Details
The Prevalence of Sexual Corruption Across Public Sectors A Study of Education, Healthcare, and Law Enforcement in South Africa	View Paper Details
Empowering Students Against Sexual Corruption: Anti-Corruption Reforms and Further Tasks in Ukrainian Higher Education	View Paper Details
The Easy Way Out: A Feminist Institutionalist Analysis of Efforts to Combat Sexual Corruption	View Paper Details
Countering The Threat of Sexual Corruption to Female Entrepreneurs: Experimental Evidence from Burkina Faso	View Paper Details
Gender, Revolving Doors, and Voter Tolerance of Corruption	View Paper Details