It’s well known that during times of financial hardship, crime goes up. So no one should be surprised that corporate crime goes up during a recession.

Today’s financial crisis allows the opportunity for many research based organizations to publish studies on just that. One such study, conducted by Transparency International in January, discovered that as the economy sinks, the amount of corruption in the business world goes up.

As Jermyn Brooks, a Director at TI, put it, “For the business world, when the economic parameters get tight there is a much stronger temptation to focus on survival … regardless of what that means in terms of perhaps cutting corners.”

He suggests that business leaders are more concerned about job cuts than preventing bribes in time like this. So what should companies to do? Ensure that you have up-to-date compliance and anti-corruption systems, Brooks says.

If there is a lesson to be learned from the recession we find ourselves in, it’s that now, more than ever, companies need to focus on their compliance systems and reinforce ethical culture, rather than shy away from them for budgetary reasons.