corruption
Sign in to saveCorruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities like bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement, and fraud as well as practices that are legal in many countries, such as lobbying. Political corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain.
AI overview
Corruption happens when someone in a position of power—like a government official or organization leader—dishonestly uses that power for personal benefit through actions like bribery, embezzlement, or fraud. It matters because it undermines trust in institutions, diverts resources away from their intended purposes, and harms the people who depend on those in positions of authority to act fairly.
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Article
52 sectionsContents
- Definitions and scales
- Petty theft, grand theft, speed money, access money
- Petty corruption
- Grand corruption
- Systemic corruption
- State-business collusion
- Causes{{anchor|Causes_of_corruption}}
- By sector
- Public sector
- Political
- Judicial
- Military
- Natural resources
- Police
- Private sector
- Legal
- Corporate
- Education
- Healthcare
- Labor unions
- Stock market corruption
- Arms trafficking
- Philosophy
- Religious organizations
- Methods
- Bribery
- Embezzlement, theft and fraud
- Graft
- Extortion and blackmail
- Access money
- Influence peddling
- Networking
- Abuse of discretion
- Favoritism, nepotism and clientelism
- State capture
- Legal corruption
- Examples
- Foreign corrupt practices of industrialized OECD countries 1994 study
- "Specific" legal corruption: exclusively against foreign countries
- Siemens corruption case
- Measurement
- Relationship to economic growth
- Prevention
- Competition law
- Enhancing civil society participation
- Anti-corruption programmes
- In popular culture
- Historical responses in philosophical and religious thought
- Corruption by country
- See also
- References
- Further reading
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities like bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement, and fraud as well as practices that are legal in many countries, such as lobbying. Political corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain.
Historically, "corruption" had a broader meaning concerned with an activity's impact on morals and societal well-being: for example, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was condemned to death in part for "corrupting the young".