Writing in Hoy on Saturday, 8 December, social analyst and journalist Juan Bolivar Diaz describes how the high levels of corruption and impunity in the Dominican Republic encourage crime among young people who are excluded from opportunities for a better life but also within crime-fighting organizations like the Police, the Drugs Agency (DNCD) and the Armed Forces. He comments that the DR has flunked again in Transparency International’s Index on Perception of Corruption, with 32 points out of 100. The DR shares the seventh ranking from bottom up with Ecuador, among 32 American countries, and is in 118th place among 176 of all continents.
Transparency International again confirms that the Dominican Republic is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Diaz writes that in the Americas, Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Mexico are the most corrupt, and also have the highest crime rates in the continent. The exceptions in the region are El Salvador and Jamaica with high crime rates, but more control on their corruption levels.
He says that social scientists are convinced that there is a relationship between corruption and crime. The weaker the institutions, inefficient or participants themselves in corruption, as a consequence impunity will predominate, the best breeding ground for crime.
“If the political system and government officials are permeated by bad administration of government funds and corruption, especially when this is visible and without accountability, then the other social segments relax the concept of rule of the law and honesty, and there is a generalization of appropriation of private and public property.
He also points to how the demonstration effect has a powerful influence on crime, especially when the have-nots are aware that the wealth was illicitly obtained. http://www.hoy.com.do/tema-de-hoy/2012/12/8/457965/Corrupcion-e-impunidad-alientan-la-delincuencia