Corruption in Serbia: Unique or a shared Balkan disease?

Abstract

The break up of Yugoslavia resulted in successor states in which corruption spread like wildfire, except Slovenia. Therefore, research of corruption in one country of the 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.

Keywords

• corruption
• Serbia
• Balkan
• law enforcement