Sexual corruption. Understanding, measuring and preventing abuse of power for sex

Sexual corruption refers to the abuse of entrusted authority for sexual gain.

Previous research has largely neglected the broad and complex implications of sex as a currency in corrupt transactions.

The building and consolidation of the proposed research environment will contribute to understanding, measuring and preventing sexual corruption.

The research environment is formed around an established interdisciplinary knowledge hub on sexual corruption at Uppsala University that will engage with two leading corruption institutes: the Quality of Government Institute (QoG) and Transparency International (TI). The research results will inform their future initiatives to measure and prevent sexual corruption.

Methodologically, the project develops a mixed-method approach, combining focus group workshops and surveys to assess both understandings and prevalence of sexual corruption.

The first stage of the project is carried out in South Africa and Scandinavia, focusing on two sectors: higher education and law enforcement. The lessons learned will feed into a third state-of-the-art study.

The project also includes a component focusing on prevention: mapping of legislation on sexual corruption globally and developing of safe reporting mechanisms.

This research environment will facilitate the measurement of sexual corruption with consistent definitions and reliable methods, and contribute to new, relevant and holistic corruption prevention strategies to ensure legitimate use of power.