Chapter 9 Combating corruption

Corruption has been defined in different ways by various scholars and organizations according to cultural, legal, or other factors ( Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2008 , p. 22). The word “corruption” is derived from the Latin word corruptus and, according to the dictionary, it has six possible meanings: dishonesty for personal gain; depravity; undesirable change; corrupting of something; altered word or phrase; or rotting. However, the most useful typology of contemporary social science definitions of corruption is Arnold J. Heidenheimer's typology of three major types of definitions ( Heidenheimer, 1970 , pp. 4–6).