Public Corruption free essay sample

PUBLIC CORRUPTION Kelly Monks Anthony F. Scarpelli CJ-305-02 Applied Criminal Justice Ethics Unit 2 Critical Analysis Essay May 1, 2011 PUBLIC CORRUPTION Public corruption involves a breach of public trust and/or abuse of position by federal, state, or local officials and their private sector accomplices. By broad definition, a government official, whether elected, appointed or hired, may violate federal law when he/she asks for, demands, solicits, accepts, or agrees to receive anything of value in return for being influenced in their performance of their official duties( Myint, 2006). The majority of public corruption cases fall into one of five categories: legislative, judicial, regulatory, contractual, and law enforcement. Legislative corruption and judicial corruption deals with influence of legislators and judges. Regulatory corruption deals with government investigators, such as those looking into the corporate scandals of the past few years. Contractual corruption is illegal forms of persuasion connected to the distribution of government contracts. Law enforcement corruption refers to any improper attempt to sway officers of the law. Examples of corrupt behavior would include: bribery, extortion, fraud, embezzlement, nepotism, cronyism, appropriation of public assets and property for private use, and influence peddling. Corrupt behavior activities such as fraud and embezzlement can be undertaken by an official alone and without involvement of a second party. While others such as bribery, extortion and influence peddling involve two parties, the giver and taker in a corrupt deal. Corruption is a Western concept and is not applicable to traditional societies, where corruption does not have such a negative meaning. Many traditional societies with a â€Å"gift culture† have a different understanding of civil responsibilities and etiquette. The social structure and political traditions of many countries are based on the beneficial exchange of rewards for services rendered, and cannot survive in its absence. †(idebate. o rg). Do you agree with any part of this claim? If so which parts? If not, why not? I agree with this claim because public corruption is generally viewed as an obstacle in the development of a country. Many governments, international organizations and aid agencies have special agendas and rules and regulations that are enacted to fight the problem. In countries with very high levels of corruption is it very pervasive, it has to have some beneficial rewards. While definitely not something to be proud of, public corruption can be seen as an unavoidable side effect of development. Corruption reduces bureaucracy and speeds the implementation of administrative practices governing economic forces of the market. Corrupt public officials sometimes acquire incentives to help create a developmental friendly system for the economy. Corruption often starts a chain that can benefit all the economic players that are involved in the game, making sure that the over regulated and obstructive bureaucracies are much more efficient. In many countries corruption can be seen as a natural response to shortages. Often in developing countries the demand for a service such as access to the courts, education, healthcare, and the attention of civil servants and politicians far outweighs the ability of public officials to cope with the increased demands. To prevent the system from coming to a complete stop, a way to ration has to be found and corruption provides a way to decrease the demands on the system. It places a price on a service and enables officials to prioritize and go forward to deal with all the demands that have been placed on their time and resources. What do the readings say on the topic of corruption as cultural tradition? What counter- arguments do they make to the above assertion? Corruption is very bad for democracy as it can lead to the downfall of the state by special interests. In a corrupt societies free and fair election results count for little. Once in power a lot of politicians in members of the parties are likely to concentrate on enriching themselves by taking money from individuals and companies in order to promote their own interests rather than those of their voters or the country as a whole. Sometimes politicians can be bought outright, they can often be persuaded to change their political party for a very large financial reward. To avoid having to be accountable to the members of the electorate, corrupt politicians have an many different incentives they can use to corrupt the elections, such as bribing the electorate with their own money and plotting to make the electoral process unfair for the voters. This very unjustly, and it creates a contempt for democracy and makes coups and other forms of dictatorship more attractive to many people which can lead to people loosing faith in their government. This can economically disastrous because it gives those in power the incentive and ability to continually create new laws and regulations as they choose to, which they can then exploit in order to extract bribes. How could gift-giving traditions be used by unscrupulous officials as a way to take advantage of people in the name of tradition? There is a lot of pressure on companies to bribe government officials in third world countries. Bribery of government officials also takes place in the United States, it is very rare and when found they are severely punished. Bribery happens with greater frequency in third world countries, there is always a feeling present that it is a very normal practice to bribe government officials. Bribery is defined as â€Å"the condition in which a person, such as a government official, agrees to be paid to act as dictated by an interested party, rather than doing what is required of him in his official employment. What is central to the notion of a bribe is that an agreement is made, even if the act itself is never performed and the payment is never madeâ€Å"(Lawyershop. com). The person being bribed has implicitly agreed to abide by the rules of his government, organization, or legal system. There is a difference between bribery and extortion, which is where an official requires payment to perform his otherwise normal duties. There is a difference between bribery and gift giving, which includes neither implicit nor explicit agreements, even if the giver intends the gift as a payment for the official to perform sort of special duty for the gift giver. An official may accept a gift innocently, and friendships can be formed that may involve the exchanging gifts. Gift giving in foreign countries is sometimes often part of a needed business ceremony. The receiver of a gift needs to be confident that he remains impartial in conducting his official duties to make sure that no wrong doing can be seen. In some particular occupations, such as law enforcement, and governmental positions they have established codes that forbid gifts since the receiver can risk losing impartiality through gift giving. Corruption is now recognized to be one of the worlds greatest challenges. It is a major hindrance to sustainable development, with an impact on poor communities and is very corrosive on the very fabric that makes up our society. The impact that corruption has on the private sector is also considerable it impedes economic growth, distorts competition and represents serious legal and reputational risks for those who participative. Corruption can be very costly for businesses, with the extra financial burden estimated to add 10% or more to the costs of doing business in many parts of the world. The World Bank has stated that bribery has become a $1 trillion industry. Corruption as we all know it is inherently wrong. It is a total misuse of power and position and it can have a disproportionate impact on the poor and disadvantaged countries . It undermines the integrity of all involved and damages the fabric of the organizations to which they belong. The reality that laws making corrupt practices criminal may not always be enforced is no justification for accepting corrupt practices. To fight corruption in all its forms is simply the right thing to do. WORKS CITED 1. Benefits of Corruption. International Debate Education Association. (2006). Retrieved on May 1, 2011 from http://www. idebate. org/debatabase/topic_details. php? topicID=507. 2. Bribery. Lawyershop. com. Retrieved on May 1, 2011 from http://www. lawyershop. com/practice-areas/criminal-law/white-collar-crimes/bribery- kickbacks 3. Delattre, E. J. (2006). Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing(5th ed. . Washington, D. C. : AESI Press. 4. Transparency International. The Global Corruption Against Corruption. Retrieved on May 1, 2011 from http://www. transparency. org/news_room/faq/corruption_faq#faqcorr9. 5. U Myint. Asia-Pacific Development Journal. Corruption: Causes, Consequences and Cures. Vol. 7, No. 2, December 2000. Retrieved on May 1, 2011 from http://content- crj. kaplan. edu/CJ340_1102C/images/product/myint. PDF.