How Serious Is Bribery? An Introduction
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
It is a basic principle of criminal law that the punishment should fit the crime. Imposing a punishment that is too severe would be unfair while imposing a punishment that is too lenient would not deter future crime. The present study aims to provide a framework for determining how severe the punishment should be for bribery by comparing the seriousness of bribery to that of other crimes and offenses. Some studies have ranked crimes in terms of relative severity. A few of them have included bribery as one of the listed crimes. These studies will be reviewed and expanded upon in this and subsequent chapters. The present study is part of a much larger study that compares the relative seriousness of bribery to that of other moral acts. This review serves as an introduction to more than 90 other case studies that examine the relative severity of bribery in more than 90 countries. © 2025 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Recommended Citation
Robert W., McGee, "How Serious Is Bribery? An Introduction" (2025). College of Business and Economics. 398.
https://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/college_business_economics/398