David Jancsics

Dr. David Jancsics is a Professor at the School of Public Affairs within the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts at San Diego State University (SDSU). He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center and has held prior appointments at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a postdoctoral fellowship at Rutgers University. His research focuses on corruption mechanisms, particularly border corruption, corruption networks, and the intersection of kinship systems with public administration. He has authored a monograph on Hungarian corruption patterns (Cornell University Press, 2024) and is completing a second book on kinship and corruption in public administration under contract with Palgrave.

Dr. Jancsics' work intersects with law enforcement ethics, informal organizational practices, and transnational corruption dynamics. His consulting engagements include the United Nations, European Commission, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Transparency International. He has been awarded the Fulbright US Scholar grant for Hungary (2024–25) and has published widely in journals such as Public Administration Review, International Public Management Journal, and Sociology Compass. His research bridges sociological theory with empirical studies of institutional failure and systemic corruption across diverse geopolitical contexts.

His advising and grants profile includes collaborative research on organized crime metrics in the Western Balkans (UNODC-funded) and participatory roles in global anti-corruption initiatives. Current projects emphasize the evolution of corruption networks from local cliques to state-level systems, as seen in his analysis of Hungary's political trajectory. He maintains active research partnerships with international organizations and regularly contributes to policy discussions on border integrity and institutional accountability.