The word mafia often evokes quasi-romantic images from The God Father or The Sopranos. Mafia thugs are imagined as Sicilian men wearing traditional clothes, speaking with accents and carrying guns. Many in Europe think that the mafia is a problem confined to parts of Italy and maybe to remote places like Russia or Japan. Unfortunately, this assumptions are widely inaccurate.

A glimpse into the origin of the term “corruption” gives an initial clue to understand the meaning behind it. The Latin root stands for “moral decay, rottenness”,, appropriate to describe this wide-spread phenomenon. While the broad term “corruption” may include a diverse set of wrongdoings for most people “bribery”is the first one to come to mind.