Skip to main content

US Trends in Public Corruption Prosecutions

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Synonyms

Bribery; Embezzlement; Fraud; Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA); Government monopoly; Kickbacks; Misappropriation

Definition

Public corruption is defined as the misuse or abuse of an individual’s public office for private gain. In contrast, commercial corruption is the use of a private or business position of trust for one’s personal gain. While both types of corruption involve misuse/abuse of one’s position, public corruption affects everyone because it involves public trust and/or money, whereas commercial corruption affects only those doing business with the individual or firm.

Introduction

Corruption has been broadly defined as “the use of public office for private gain” or “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain” (Rose-Ackerman and Palifka 2016; Transparency International 2017; World Bank 2017). However, broad definitions are not useful to understand the exact behaviors result in liability and public corruption prosecutions. The modern era of US prosecution of...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jay S. Albanese .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Artello, K., Albanese, J.S. (2018). US Trends in Public Corruption Prosecutions. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3574-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3574-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics