Police corruption is a type of police misbehavior in which officers abuse their positions of power for personal advantages, such as money or promotion. Accepting bribes in exchange for not conducting, or selectively conducting, an investigation or arrest, for example.

There appears to have been a significant upsurge in police violence around the world in recent years. Many police forces have a reputation for inhumane behavior, deep-seated corruption, and other nefarious actions. They are the world’s most corrupt police forces. They’re also notorious for their most heinous acts.

Aside from the strongest police forces in the world, there are also some of the most corrupt. They were involved in illicit actions that harmed society and put its residents in peril. Many police officers are underpaid, and in order to supplement their income, they resort to corruption – but their self-serving actions have wreaked havoc on countries in desperate need of assistance.

Here are the top 10 most corrupt police forces in the world.

Honduras

Honduras

Honduran police have a reputation for being among the most corrupt in the world. Honduran police officers have been accused of a wide range of criminal activities, including corruption, passing information to criminal groups, allowing drug shipments to pass through without inspection, protecting drug trafficking operations, and participating in, and in some cases directing, violent criminal operations.

Following reports that senior police officers were involved in the 2009 assassination of the country’s drug czar, Honduras established a panel to purge the police force. Unlike earlier attempts to purge the police force, the panel made early headway, scrutinising hundreds of senior officials and dismissing thousands of officers.

The commission’s mandate is still in effect, and more than 6,000 agents had been fired by January 2020. Nonetheless, scandals involving organised crime and police leadership have called into question the commission’s legitimacy.

Read More: Top 10 worst dictators in the world

Paraguay

Paraguay

More than a dozen police officers get jailed in Paraguay for attempting to steal confiscated timber, highlighting the appeal of Latin America’s illegal logging business to opportunistic corrupt law enforcement and criminal networks.

For allegedly attempting to steal illegally logged wood that had been seized in an earlier police operation, an agent from the local prosecutor’s office ordered the arrest of 15 police officers from the city of Curuguaty, in Paraguay’s eastern department of Canindey, near the country’s border with Brazil.

Read More: Top 10 dangerous countries

Venezuela

Venezuela

According to reports, police corruption is one of Latin America’s major issues, and public perception of its scope is a major concern for regional law enforcement. In Latin America, individuals believe the police are corrupt in varying degrees, ranging from 90% in Mexico to 47% in Uruguay, while 70% of those polled in Venezuela have a bad opinion of their government. Furthermore, 56 percent of Venezuelans believe that the police are participating in organised crime.

Corruption has long plagued Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard. Border monitoring, ports, airports, oil facilities, parks, and preserving public order are among the responsibilities of the Venezuelan Armed Forces’ fourth branch. Officers of the GNB, as well as members of all of the country’s defence and security services, have been accused of drug trafficking, kidnappings, and other illicit activities in recent years.

Read More: Top 10 criminals in the world

Uganda

Uganda

The Uganda Police Force (UPF) has once again been named Uganda’s most corrupt agency.

According to the Fourth National Integrity Survey Report, the general police department is the worst in the country at extorting money from citizens through bribery.

The general duties police department received 70% of the vote, followed by the traffic police department with 67% and the Criminal Investigations Directorate with 6%. (CID).

The Uganda Police Force has repeatedly been listed as Uganda’s most corrupt institution, according to several assessments, including one by Transparency International.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) performed this study on behalf of the Inspectorate of Government (IG) in 15 sub-regions of Uganda, including both rural and urban areas.

Guatemala

Guatemala

The International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a unique UN-backed body that provides independent support to Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor’s Office, guided Guatemalans through dozens of high-profile cases involving some of the country’s most powerful political and economic figures.

This movement made a number of significant advancements toward a more powerful and independent judiciary. With the help of the CICIG, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has conducted over 100 corruption investigations, including high-profile personalities, and prosecuted 660 people, resulting in 400 convictions.

Guatemala is also in the process of appointing new Supreme Court justices and judges to the Appellate Court. It is critical for the rule of law and independent judicial procedures in Guatemala to have independent, deserving justice officials with the appropriate professional qualifications in the country’s highest courts.

In order to preserve their own impunity, corrupt political operators regard this process as the best opportunity to reclaim control of justice institutions. Criminal actors strive to recruit corruptible friends by influencing the selection process for these officials.

Ukraine

Ukraine

The judges, police, public servants, the health service, and parliament, according to Ukrainians, are the most corrupt. The police, the health-care system, and the educational system are the most common targets of bribes. Around 67 percent of Ukrainians who had engaged with the government in the late 2000s and early 2010s indicated they had been directly involved in corrupt dealings.

Bribes are paid to guarantee that government services are provided on schedule or at all. Bribes are given by Ukrainians because they believe it is traditional and expected. Some of the largest bribes are in the millions of dollars. According to a sociological survey conducted by Management Systems International (MSI), the highest levels of corruption were identified in, police was more than 55%, followed by health services, courts, and higher education.

Mexico

Mexico

Police corruption is currently one of the most serious issues confronting Mexican law enforcement and politics. High unemployment, poor and stagnant salaries, and the widespread incidence of drug trafficking all contribute to corruption in Mexico.

Police corruption has had a significant detrimental impact on business and economic advancement in Mexico, according to business officials. Part of the reason for the continuous expansion of illicit narcotics and the growth of the drug manufacturing and distribution sectors is police corruption. Widespread police corruption has a number of consequences.

According to Mexico’s 2012 National Survey on Victimization and Public Security Perception, over 92 percent of crimes go unreported or uninvestigated. More than two-thirds of Mexicans believe that some or all police officers in their country are corrupt.

Corruption, according to 43% of Mexican residents, is the most significant barrier to effective law enforcement. Many people have confessed to bribing cops, even for minor offences like unauthorised parking and other traffic charges.

Tanzania

Tanzania

People’s efforts to struggle for justice and democratic reforms have been hampered by the Tanzanian Police Force. Because of its harsh treatment of the government’s critics and dissidents, President Magufuli’s regime has been able to implement severe laws that restrict citizens’ rights and freedoms.

President Magufuli’s unlawful restriction on political rallies and the people’s freedom to assemble in Tanzania, for example, has been used as a justification to assault opposition party meetings and arrest and detain their leaders. The police have also played a role in defending local and international wealth, as well as suppressing workers’ requests for better working conditions from their employers.

Because of the police’s efforts to instil fear of the government among the people, any collective effort on the side of the populace to demand responsibility from leaders now appears unachievable.

People still remember images of riot police conducting open exercises in the streets of various towns across the country in 2016, following the opposition Chadema party’s announcement of a nationwide demonstration to denounce what it called the country’s increasing dictatorial tendencies at the time.

Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

According to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer for Latin America and the Caribbean, police are one of the region’s most corrupt agencies. In the Dominican Republic, 47% of those who came into touch with the police in the previous year had to pay a bribe. Bribery was found in larger numbers only in Mexico and Venezuela, both of which have a history of abusive and corrupt security forces.

Furthermore, according to Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) country report on the Dominican Republic, nearly 62 percent of Dominicans believe the police are involved in criminal activity, nearly double the percentage of people (32.2 percent) who believe the police protect the population.

According to Transparency International, 72 percent of citizens believe the government is failing to tackle corruption, and 66 percent believe corruption has deteriorated in the last year.

Kenya

Kenya

The Kenyan police force is regarded as one of the most corrupt official agencies in the country. Corruption isn’t just a problem in the lower echelons of society. It exists at all levels of the police department. Those who refuse to pay bribes are sometimes brutalised, injured, or even killed, according to accounts.

The absence of checks and balances, as well as the fragility of institutions, contribute to police corruption. As a result, holding people accountable for their conduct is difficult.

Accurate Rape Crime statistics are notoriously difficult to come by. The most significant issue is that the majority of sexual violence victims choose not to report it. There are a variety of reasons for this decision, including shame, victim shaming, fear of rapist retaliation, and even concern about the victim’s own family’s reaction.

In addition, many countries’ anti-sexual-assault legislation is insufficient, inconsistent, or not consistently applied. This might lead to the victim believing that involving law enforcement will do no good and, in certain situations, will make matters worse rather than better.

Whatever the cause for a victim’s silence, the result is that rape in many nations is grossly underreported. It is believed that around 35% of women in the world have been sexually harassed at some point in their lives.

However, in most nations with data on rape (including the United States), fewer than 40% of those women seek help—and fewer than 10% seek law enforcement aid. As a result, the majority of rapists go unpunished. In the United States, for example, only around 9% of rapists are prosecuted, and only about 3% are sentenced to prison. Rapists get away with 97 percent of the time.

Here are the top 10 countries with the highest rape crime in the world.

South Africa

The country has one of the highest rates of rape crimes in the world, with an estimated 500,000 incidents each year. More than 40% of South African women are expected to be raped over their lifetime.

According to the Medical Research Council, just one out of every nine rapes is recorded. As a result, the actual number of rapes is substantially higher than what the police record. South Africa tops the list of countries with the most rape crimes reported. The majority of sexual violence occurs against women, although it also occurs against males and children.

Over 4% of men have been forced to have sex with other guys, according to a report. Children are the victims of 41% of all recorded rape incidents, according to South African police. Children under the age of 11 make up about 15% of rape victims.

According to the Tears Foundation and the Medical Research Council in South Africa, 50 percent of the country’s youngsters would be abused before they reach the age of 18. According to another statistic, there were 24,892 rapes and attempted rapes of youngsters under the age of 18 last year.

Read More: Top 10 crime rate by country in 2021

Sweden

Sweden now has the world’s second-highest rate of rapes, trailing only South Africa (53.2 per 100,000). According to statistics, one out of every four Swedish women is a victim of rape. However, when it comes to the number of rapes, the trend is considerably worse. In 1975, just 421 rapes were reported to the police; in 2014, there were 6,620. This is a 1,472 percent raise.

In addition, Sweden has Europe’s highest rape rate. According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, the Swedish police reported 63 rape cases per 100,000 people in 2013.

One out of every three adult Swedish women has been sexually attacked, according to rape crisis campaigners in Sweden. Over 1,000 Swedish women were raped by Muslim immigrants in Stockholm during the first half of 2013, with over 300 of them under the age of 15.

Read More: Top 10 most corrupt countries in the world

USA

According to the Worldwide Sexual Assault Statistics from George Mason University, one out of every three American women will be sexually abused at some point in their lives. At least once in their life, 19.3 percent of women and 2% of males have been raped.

In addition, 43.9 percent of women and 23.4 percent of men are projected to have encountered additional forms of sexual assault at some point in their lives. Many victims of sexual assault were raped when they were young; around 79 percent were raped before the age of 25, and 40 percent before the age of 18.

According to RAIIN, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted every 107 seconds. Every year, an average of 293,000 people (aged 12 and up) are sexually assaulted. 68% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police. Almost all rapists will never serve a single day in prison.

Read More: Top 10 most hated people in the world

England and Wales

According to a 2013 report titled “An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales,” 85,000 people in England and Wales are raped per year — 73,000 women and 12,000 men, amounting to around 230 instances each day. According to the report, one out of every five women has been subjected to some sort of sexual violence since the age of 16.

According to BBC reporting, the number of rapes reported to and documented by police is at an all-time high, up 29% as a total crime in England and Wales declines.

According to research conducted by the NSPCC on young people (ages 13–18), a third of girls and 16% of males have experienced sexual violence, and up to 250,000 teenage girls are abused at any given time. Sexual violence against partners was reported by 12 percent of boys and 3 percent of girls.

India

In India, rape and sexual assault are widespread. Crimes against women have grown by 7.5 percent since 2010, according to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB). In India, which has a population of over 1.2 billion people, the number of recorded rapes increased to 33,707 in 2013 from 24,923 in 2012. Rape victims are mostly between the ages of 18 and 30.

One in every three victims is under the age of 18, and one in every ten rape victims is under the age of 14. In addition, 93 women are raped per day in the country.

The majority of the perpetrators are known to the victims – 31,807 (94 percent) of the accused were known to the victims, including neighbors (10782), other known persons (18171), relatives (2315), and parents (539).

In India and the rest of the world, the majority of rapes go undetected. According to Madiha Kark, an estimated 54% of rape cases are unreported, while Mihir Srivastava estimates 90% of rapes go unreported in India

New Zealand

The Roast Busters controversy in 2013 brought the truth about rape in New Zealand to light. A band of young males from West Auckland known as the “Roast Busters” was accused of attempting to intoxicate teenage girls in order to gang rape them.

According to a survey published in the British medical magazine The Lancet, New Zealand’s sexual assault rate is significantly higher than the global average. It ranked the country third highest in the world, with Australia, with 16.4% of the female population.

In a year, the number of sexual attacks increased by 15%, while the number of assaults at schools doubled. In New Zealand, just 9% of sexual offenses are recorded (registered by the police). Only 13 percent of all reported cases result in a conviction. 91 percent of rapes go undetected, or victims are coerced by police into not reporting them.

Canada

Sexual assault has shown a fast increase in reported rates among all violent crimes reported to police in Canada. According to the Huffington Post, 460,000 sexual assaults occur in the United States each year. According to reports, 33 out of every 1,000 occurrences of sexual assault are reported to the police, with 29 being recorded as a crime.

Over 80% of victims are women, the majority of assaults occur in the house, and 80% of perpetrators are the victim’s relatives and family. The most alarming statistic is that 83% of disabled women will be sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. 17 percent of all sexual assault victims are girls, and 15% are boys under the age of 16.

Australia

The reported rape rate per 100,000 individuals in Australia is relatively high. An estimated 51,200 Australians aged 18 and older were sexually assaulted in the previous year.

The most recent episode of sexual assault was reported to the police by nearly a third (30 percent) of victims. According to Karen Willis, executive officer of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, more than 70% of these sexual attacks are committed by family members, acquaintances, coworkers, or schoolmates.

A further 29% of rapes are committed by someone the woman meets in a social setting or on a date. Only 1% of rapes are carried out by strangers, she claims.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is ranked 9th among the countries with the highest rate of rape offenses in the world. In Zimbabwe, at least one woman is raped every 90 minutes.

According to the most recent figures from Zimbabwe National Statistics (ZimStat), 500 women are sexually abused per month, equating to around 16 rapes each day. Child rape has increased by 42 percent in Zimbabwe, according to UNICEF.

According to the data, the number of cases of minor rape reported to police increased from 2,192 in 2010 to 3,112 in 2014. In an environment of secrecy and denial, many more incidents are likely to go unreported.

Denmark and Finland

In Europe, one in every three women has been subjected to some type of physical or sexual assault, with 5% of them raped.

According to a 2014 report published by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, over 47 percent of women surveyed in Finland and 52 percent of women in Denmark had experienced physical and/or sexual abuse. In 1994, Finland became one of the last countries in the EU to make marital rape illegal.