Adopting a Multi-Theoretical Framework to Explain and Understand the Impact of Traffic Police Corruption in South Africa
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This article examined traffic police corruption in South Africa through a multi-theoretical framework. It drew together the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Theory of Planned Behaviour, behavioural intention, control and social control perspectives, and General Systems Theory to explain why corrupt practices cannot be reduced to individual choice alone. The analysis indicated that behavioural intentions interact with workplace culture, peer solidarity, the code of silence, weak or inconsistent sanctions, managerial control, and wider organisational systems. It also showed that single-theory explanations leave important features of traffic-policing environments unexplained. The article therefore developed an integrated framework in which individual dispositions, social pressures, accountability mechanisms, feedback, and institutional conditions are treated as interconnected influences. It concluded that effective anti-corruption responses require both behavioural and systemic interventions, including credible sanctions, protected reporting channels, managerial accountability, and attention to both bribe takers and bribe givers.
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