The present article investigates why the corruptibility of enforcing authorities affects resource users’ compliance intentions. More specifically, the aim is to explore how nuances of trust and trustworthiness of public officials and the scale of corruption are related to compliance among CPR users. An empirical investigation is employed using primary data from confidential in-depth interviews with South African small-scale fishermen. The article reaches theoretical as well as empirical insights. The interviews shed some light on the puzzling role of trust and trustworthiness of public officials. While resource users often knows inspectors personally – and uphold discretion necessary for bribery to continue – they depict them as dishonest and describe how corrupt acts decrease their trustworthiness. Moreover, respondents describe how the expected behavior of inspectors and other resource users to ask for or accept bribes are vital in their compliance decisions. Also corruption involving politicians and industrial actors affect respondents’ willingness to comply. Hence, both petty and grand types of corruption seem to corrode compliance intentions.
