Survey reveals that most think corruption in Portugal has increased in the last year
More than half of the surveys in an opinion survey by the University of Lisbon released this Saturday consider that corruption has increased in the last year, associating politicians and businessmen with acts of corruption.
In the study, carried out by the Institute of Social Sciences, 53% of respondents agreed with the idea that augmentation, the most prevalent opinion among women, people who declare themselves politically left-wing and with intermediate levels of income and education.
Most respondents feel that a pandemic has increased opportunities for corruption, an idea that is more prevalent among men, right-wing and educated people at higher levels.
Asked about the link between professions and the prevalence of corruption, on average they said they thought that 69 out of 100 politicians and 51 out of 100 businessmen were corrupt.
As for employees, the answers point to a 40% prevalence of corruption, a value close to the 39% perceived in relation to citizens in general.
Among the words that most associate corruption, “politics” is the one that was most applied, followed by “money” and “stealing”.
Only 7% of respondents asked that a public official asked them or gave a sense that they wanted gifts or favors in exchange for services or requests for a bribe, situations reported most often by people with low prices.
The percentage rises to 18% for cases where respondents know people who have problems solved with gifts, favors or bribes.
Although most say that corruption has increased in the last year, 73% say that the phenomenon has not affected “no more nor less” as their lives, against 22% who say that the pandemic period has caused their professional or personal lives. Will be more affected.
Only 1% stated that they would always report any case of corruption they became aware of. Among the reasons for not reporting, the idea prevails that it would be useless (33%), that time and cost are not worth it (17%), fear of reprisals (15%) and lack of authority to whom to turn (10% ) .
When faced with hypothetical hypotheses in the context of political and public positions, the respondents associated with corruption acts that do not fit the criminal definition, such as abuse of power or embezzlement.
The survey by the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, based on 1,020 face-to-face characteristics, was carried out between December 2020 and April 2021.