For many people today, people who can be heard on talk shows across the nation, people who speak on television and campaign for change, people who refuse to vote or have anything to do with the political process--for these people and others, political corruption is such a fact of life that they cannot separate the idea of government and government officials from corrupt practices. Many decry the fact, but many others have accepted it as a way of life. In cities like New York, scandals erupt several times a year to show that political leaders are taking bribes and kickbacks to do their job with less vigor than is required. Federal corruption probes also seem to be more and more common, with indictments, trials, and convictions against members of Congress, judges at almost every level, appointees, and even presidential advisers demonstrating over and over that corruption has become an epidemic, affecting the body politic at its most basic levels. An examination of the issue and of the prevalence of such corrupt practices as kickbacks and the bribery of government officials should contribute to an attempt to find an explanation for why this is becoming such a problem at this time.
KICKBACKS AND BRIBERY OF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
There are many different facets to the problem of corrupt government officials, but identifying corruption is usually a matter of law. Federal law concerning bribery is found in Section 201 and in Section 666 of Title 18. Section 666 imposes liability when a public official accepts an offered bribe or when an individual accedes to a request for a bribe and applies only to officials of state and local governments or agencies of such governments that draw a threshold amount of federal funds. Section 201 applies to most federal officials. To prove an offense under Section 201, the government must show that a public official was asked to, or offered to take some official act in return for a thing of valu...