The Measurement and Impact of Corruption Victimization: Survey Evidence from Latin America

Abstract

Does democracy suffer when corruption is high? Unfortunately, most studies of corruption have been descriptive, making it difficult to develop a well-supported answer to this question. There are, of course, quantitative corruption measures, but the most popularly used of them are measures of corruption perception aggregated at the national level, rather than corruption experience at the individual level. It is difficult to draw firm conclusions about the impact of corruption from such data. This paper proposes a corruption–victimization measure based on a survey research approach to the measurement problem, and discusses (in a non-technical fashion) its strengths and limitations. The paper then presents data from studies conducted by the Vanderbilt University Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), and demonstrates the impact of corruption victimization on belief in the legitimacy of the political system, a critical element in democratic political stability.