QoG lunch seminar with Robert Gillanders

Abstract: 

This article examines whether sexualised corruption – the abuse of public power to obtain sexual favours – emerges under the same opportunity structures as petty corruption in advanced democracies. Drawing on representative data from 40,663 respondents from the 2023 Global Corruption Barometer–European Union, we construct regionally disaggregated measures of sexualised corruption across all 27 member states. Our analysis shows that regional prevalence of petty corruption predicts sexualised corruption, but the relationship is conditional: it is strongest in affluent regions and in countries with lower overall corruption and greater gender equality, while in poorer or more corrupt settings sexualised corruption is elevated regardless of petty corruption levels. By contrast, petty corruption does not predict perceptions, which are concentrated in urban and educated regions even as experiences cluster in deprived areas. These findings indicate that rising corruption can inflict severe harms on women, even in countries relatively advanced in combating corruption and promoting gender equality.