SEMO CRIMINOLOGIST FINDS USE FOR BRIBERY

As a Fulbright Scholar in Eastern Europe, associate criminal justice professor Dr. Michael Fichter often behaved counter to the laws he teaches his students at Southeast Missouri State to obey.

"I had to bribe police in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania to keep them from arresting my son, Kevin," Fichter, who just returned from a teaching stint in Croatia, said. "They had no reason for arresting him, so I took a chance that money would buy us out of serious trouble. I'm thankful it worked."

Fichter started the bribe off with a $20 bill. "The police said that wasn't enough, so I gave him another $20," Fichter said. "He kept staring at me, so I gave him another $20. He still didn't seem satisfied, so I gave him $50 and he finally let us go. I don't think he had any idea how much the American money was worth compared to the currency he was used to."

Added Fichter, "In this country, a bribe to a policeman is something you just know never to do. But I've learned that culture often dictates how a criminal justice system works in a given country."

On another occasion, Fichter sped through a human roadblock in Romania to avoid being robbed. "I was told that you don't stop for anyone in the Carpathian Mountains, especially gypsies," Fichter said.

Fichter was kept in a holding pen for 22 hours while waiting to be transported on a barge. "I looked around and saw that people were spreading food on the hoods of their cars," Fichter said. "People were used to waiting this long to get on the barge."

After the lengthy wait, Fichter and a man he befriended from Macedonia began to move toward the barge. "The man from Macedonia made it onto the barge, but I was told to wait," Fichter said. "My friend told them to stop the barge and ran off to persuade the officials that I had to get on with him. The police asked me for Deutsch marks and I didn't have any. My friend managed to persuade them to let me on by using American money."

Fichter's experiences as a teacher at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, however, were anything but harrowing. "I thought it was a rewarding experience," he said. "If I get the chance to go back, I will."

Fichter's son will be marrying a law student from Bulgaria in August. "It's one of those storybook things where two people meet and begin writing to each other, then pretty soon they're planning to spend the rest of their lives together," he said.

During the semester at the University of Zagreb, which has an enrollment of about 50,000, Fichter taught a course on human rights issues at the school's law institute. He also taught a course that covered behavioral treatment in the U.S. prison system for the psychology department. In addition, Fichter lectured in American culture classes about crime in America.

"There is much more violence in American prisons than there is in Eastern European prisons," Fichter said. "Prison guards are rarely attacked in the prisons in Bulgaria, Romania or Croatia. But in the United States that happens every day."

Bulgaria doesn't have a death penalty. In fact, there are more humane provisions for prisoners who commit non-violent crimes in Bulgaria than the United States, he said.

"Prisoners who commit crimes of property are allowed to go home three weekends out of the month in Bulgaria," Fichter said. "The difference in crimes of violence there is that they are crimes of passion."

Religion plays a big part in the culture of Croatia. "It's kind of like the feud mentality of the Hatfields growing up to believe that they can never learn to like the McCoys," Fichter said. "Muslims grow up hating Catholics and they believe that one day they will push them out of their territory. They really don't see it as a never-ending battle."