Why Corruption is the Largest Problem in the World

International expert groups have identified the largest problems in the world. This address will connect these disparate global problems, showing how corruption either created them or made them much worse. The world has turned to structural reforms to institutions, laws, and policies to control corruption, but success has been uneven, as unethical people continue to exploit both corrupt and non-corrupt environments, aggravating the world’s largest problems and creating new ones. A commitment to ethics education and training can generate more ethical choices and principled responses that would increase individual accountability. It is argued that the largest problems in the world can be reduced in size only through more ethical decisionmaking, which is a precursor to reducing corruption, as the common feature of the world’s largest problems.

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Notes

Dr. Jay S. Albanese, professor in the Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, received the Freda Adler Distinguished International Scholar Award at the meeting of the American Society of Criminology in Chicago in 2021. According to the ASC Division of International Criminology, “This prize is awarded annually to an international scholar, who has made a significant contribution to the development and growth of international criminology.” Dr. Albanese is the second American to receive this award in its 25-year history.

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