Purpose

The two main objectives of this project were to advance knowledge about the way corruption and related offences are structured and operate in society and to draw inferences on the efficiency and efficacy of the judicial authorities in handling reported offences with the ultimate goal of improving and effecting control policies.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research note the authors attempt to explore the relevance of judicial materials. The authors developed an analytical framework to extract information from court case decisions and analysed 838 court cases on corruption and related offences in Portuguese first instance courts for the period 2004–2008 to map the distribution of corruption and related offences, understand the anatomy of corruption as a criminal offence and learn from the judicial system's capacity to investigate, prosecute and trial reported occurrences.

Findings

Most corruption cases took place in the major metropolitan areas, involved municipalities as passive agents and construction companies as active agents and had to do with urban sprawl and land management policies. Court data also allowed the authors to gauge the areas or sectors of activity more exposed to corruption risks. Generally speaking, these tend to be those areas or sectors characterized by high levels of informality and clientelism, high profitability ratios deriving from political decisions, unbalanced supply-demand of decisional goods and services, disorganised and fragmented regulation, low levels of transparency and insufficient or misguided supervision.

Research limitations/implications

The framework for analysis is replicable in other contexts with minor adjustments. The major limitation is access to court decisions/narratives. This project was developed in partnership with the Portuguese Public Prosecutor's Office. This has facilitated access to those materials. For those wishing to use the database, the major limitation is that it covers only the period 2004–2008.

Practical implications

The court narratives confirm that in cases where the complaint is complemented by documentary, audio, video and photographic evidences collected by special investigative means the subsequent production of proof in court is more effective. The data also suggests that cases reported from inside the organisation where the offence takes place are likelier to reach the trial phase, thus reinforcing the need for diversifying and strengthening reporting mechanisms and procedures and the guarantees to those who are willing to collaborate with the auditing and investigative authorities.

Social implications

The authors contend that court cases of corruption and related offences yield important and useful policy-oriented information that should not be overlooked by decision-makers when upgrading their efforts to fight corruption.

Originality/value

This research note introduces a novel dataset on corruption court cases in Portugal. The policy significance of this dataset is threefold: (1) it provides decision-makers a more detailed mapping of the volume and distribution of corruption and related offences across the country than that provided by standard judicial statistics; (2) it fosters knowledge on key sociological aspects of the corrupt fact, thus helping decision-makers to understand better the type of actors, objectives, contexts, resources and exchanges involved and (3) it helps to understand the dynamics of judicial proceedings and how certain procedural and institutional features impact on outcomes.

中文翻译：

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通过对法院案件内容的分析来了解腐败：研究笔记

目的

该项目的两个主要目标是增进对腐败和相关犯罪在社会中的构成和运作方式的了解，并推断司法机构在处理举报的犯罪方面的效率和效力，最终目的是改善和实施控制。政策。

设计/方法/方法

在这篇研究笔记中，作者试图探索司法材料的相关性。作者开发了一个分析框架以从法院的判决中提取信息，并分析了2004年至2008年葡萄牙初审法院有关腐败和相关犯罪的838个法院案件，以绘制腐败和相关犯罪的分布图，了解腐败的构成刑事犯罪，并从司法系统的能力中学习，以调查，起诉和审判举报的事件。

发现

大多数腐败案件发生在主要的大都市地区，涉及市政当局作为被动代理人，建筑公司作为主动代理人，并且与城市蔓延和土地管理政策有关。法院的数据还使提交人能够评估更容易受到腐败风险影响的活动领域或部门。一般而言，这些领域或部门往往具有以下特点：非正式程度和客户服务水平高，政治决策产生高利润率，决策产品和服务的供需不平衡，监管混乱无序，透明度低以及透明度不足或不足。误导的监督。

研究局限/意义

分析框架可以在其他情况下进行细微调整而复制。主要的限制是获得法院判决/叙述的权利。该项目是与葡萄牙检察院合作开发的。这有助于获取这些材料。对于那些希望使用该数据库的人，主要限制是它仅涵盖2004-2008年。

实际影响

法院的叙述证实，在申诉由特殊侦查手段收集的书面，音频，视频和摄影证据得到补充的情况下，随后出庭作证更为有效。数据还表明，从发生犯罪的组织内部举报的案件更有可能进入审判阶段，从而增加了对多样化和加强举报机制和程序的需求，并为愿意与审计和审计部门合作的人们提供了保障。调查机关。

社会影响

作者认为，腐败和相关犯罪的法院案件产生了重要而有用的政策导向信息，决策者在加强反腐败工作时不应忽视。

创意/价值

本研究报告介绍了有关葡萄牙腐败法院案件的新颖数据集。该数据集的政策意义具有三方面的意义：（1）与标准司法统计数据相比，它为决策者提供了全国范围内腐败和相关犯罪数量和分布的更详细的图表；（2）培养有关腐败事实的关键社会学方面的知识，从而帮助决策者更好地了解参与者的类型，目标，背景，资源和交流；（3）帮助了解司法程序的动态和某些程序和制度特征如何影响结果。