The view from above: interviews with corruption experts in the UK

This paper offers an overview and analysis of perceptions of corruption in the UK, as gathered over the course of 2007; the second year of the Crime and Culture research project. Attitudes towards corruption were recorded during in-depth interviews with participants who held an expert position within the following ‘target groups’: media, judiciary, the police, business, NGOs, and politicians. Collecting official or representative statements of the target groups that indicated group-typical perceptions of the nature, extent and cause of corruption, as well as of the effectiveness and cause of effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts, formed the mainstay of the second year of research. The context in which the interviewing took place is highly pertinent, as interviewees were undoubtedly influenced by the high profile corruption scandals that were dominant in the public discourse that year; in particular, the Loans for Peerages affairs of 2006-7, and the al-Yamamah scandal (2007-). This paper therefore begins with an outline of the developments that preceded and proceeded simultaneously with the interviewing phase of research. An explanation of the methodological approach to the research is then outlined, before the analysis of the interviews is presented