NCJ Number
109132
Date Published
1988
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The problem of abuse of the public trust by public officials and public employees can be found at every level of government.
Abstract
This speech focuses on efforts to combat public corruption and key statutes used to convict corrupt officials. Almost every area of public service has its distinctive forms of corruption with variations cropping up at different levels of government across the country. In response to a U.S. Department of Justice survey, 75 percent of FBI field offices reported State and local public corruption as their most serious problem. Between 1977 and 1986, there was a fourfold increase nationwide in Federal convictions for public corruption. In 1986, Federal indictments of corrupt public officials at all levels of government reached 1,192 and resulted in 1,027 convictions nationally. A variety of statutes were used in efforts to combat corruption. These included the Bribery and Gratuities Act, (18 USC 666), conflicts of interest provisions, the Hobbs Act, Travel Act, Obstruction of Justice law, wire fraud, tax code and conspiracy to defraud provisions, and the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute. RICO, the favored prosecutorial tool in corruption cases, can be used in local corruption cases in some instances. A recent General Accounting Office (GAO) survey found that only 63.2 percent of convicted public corruption defendants received jail terms, with the average prison term only 1.9 years. By comparison, 91 percent of convicted bank robbers received terms averaging more than 8 years each. It is recommended that a public campaign be mounted to heighten intolerance for corruption in government and to raise the public's expectations for good government.