Corruption in Serbia Unique or a shared Balkan disease.docVIP

-Zlo?ini-?bez-?rtava“ TEMIDA Decembar 2009, str. 29-58 ISSN: 1450-6637 DOI: 10.2298/TEM0904029V Corruption-in-Serbia:-unique-or-a-shared-- Balkan-disease? Petrus C. van Duyne* elena stoCCo Miroslava Milenovi? T like wildfire, except Slovenia. Therefore, research of corruption in one country of the he break up of Yugoslavia resulted in successor states in which corruption spread Western Balkan should be projected against neighbours. Studying corruption in Serbia and projecting it against her neighbours shows that it scores on some indexes in-between. Doing research on the criminal law processing of corruption in Serbia appears to be in many ways a challenge, even if some initial support is provided. The available data appear to be badly managed and full of pitfalls, which makes it difficult to come to firm conclusions. Nevertheless, the first reconnaissance appeared to be useful in the sense that at present the penal law system appears to be mainly populated by “small fry”: serious cases are still rare. The processing time is very long with a usual mild sentencing outcome. The paper provides suggestions for opening up law enforcement. Key words: corruption, Serbia, Balkan, law enforcement Corruption:-an-illness? The word corruption has many meanings, all of them negative. It is derived from the Latin word corrumpere, meaning to ruin, destroy, decay, rot, but also to seduce and bribe. All these negative meanings, though not all of them fully equivalent, denote something unwanted and in the literature * Petrus C. van Duyne is professor of empirical criminal law at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, E-mail: Petrus@uvt.nl Elena Stocco is an independent researcher, E-mail: elena_stocco@yahoo.it Miroslava Milenovic is certified fraud examiner/forensic accountant, E-mail: k.m@eunet.rs 29  Petrus C. van Duyne, Elena Stocco, Miroslava Milenovi? on public administration the phenomenon it deno