Corruption is a form of dishonesty or criminal offense undertaken by a person or organization entrusted with a position of authority, to acquire illicit benefit or abuse power for one’s private gain.

Corruption may include many activities including bribery and embezzlement, though it may also involve practices that are legal in many countries. Political corruption occurs when an office-holder or governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain.

Corruption Can Occur on Different Scales

• Corruption ranges from small favors between a small number of people (petty corruption).
• Corruption that affects the government on a large scale (grand corruption).
• Corruption that is so prevalent that it becomes part of the everyday structure of society — including corruption as one of the symptoms of organized crime.

Corruption and crime are endemic sociological occurrences that appear with regular frequency in virtually all countries on a global scale in varying degree and proportion. Individual nations allocate domestic resources for the control and regulation of corruption and crime. Strategies to counter corruption are often summarized under the umbrella term anti-corruption.