Corruption

The word corrupt (Middle English, from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere, to abuse or destroy : com-, intensive pref. and rumpere, to break) when used as an adjective literally means "utterly broken".^[1] In modern English usage the words corruption and corrupt have many meanings:

• Political corruption, the abuse of public power, office, or resources by government officials or employees for personal gain, e.g. by extortion, soliciting or offering bribes^[2]
• Police corruption, a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, and/or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest
• Corporate corruption, corporate criminality and the abuse of power by corporation officials, either internally or externally, including the fact that police obstruct justice.
• Corruption (philosophical concept), often refers to spiritual or moral impurity, or deviation from an ideal
• Corruption Perceptions Index, published yearly by Transparency International
• Putrefaction, the natural process of decomposition in the human and animal body following death
• Data corruption, an unintended change to data in storage or in transit
• Linguistic corruption, the change in meaning to a language or a text introduced by cumulative errors in transcription as changes in the language speakers' comprehension
• Bribery in politics, business, or sport
• Rule of law, governmental corruption of judiciary, includes governmental spending on the courts, which is completely financially controlled by the executive in many transitional and developing countries