bribery

A bribe is an illegal or unethical gift or lobbying effort bestowed to influence the recipient's conduct. It may be money, goods, rights in action, property, preferment, privilege, emolument, objects of value, advantage, or merely a promise to induce or influence the action, vote, or influence of a person in an official or public capacity. 贿赂是为了影响受贿者的行为而给予的非法或不道德的礼物或游说活动。它可能是金钱、商品、行动权利、财产、优先权、特权、报酬、价值目标、利益，或者仅仅是一种承诺，以官方或公共身份诱导或影响一个人的行动、投票或影响。 With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corrupt solicitation, acceptance, or transfer of value in exchange for official action."

Gifts of money or other items of value which are otherwise available to everyone on an equivalent basis, and not for dishonest purposes, is not bribery. Offering a discount or a refund to all purchasers is a legal rebate and is not bribery. For example, it is legal for an employee of a Public Utilities Commission involved in electric rate regulation to accept a rebate on electric service that reduces their cost for electricity, when the rebate is available to other residential electric customers. However, giving a discount specifically to that employee to influence them to look favorably on the electric utility's rate increase applications would be considered bribery. 在同等基础上，并非出于不诚实的目的，任何人都可以获得金钱或其他有价值的物品，这不是贿赂。向所有买家提供折扣或退款是合法的回扣，而不是贿赂。例如，参与电价监管的公共事业委员会的雇员接受电力服务回扣是合法的，该回扣可以降低他们的电力成本，但回扣可用于其他住宅电力客户。然而，专门给该员工打折，以影响他们对该电力公司的加价申请持积极态度，将被视为贿赂。[但是，光给一个单元/门洞的客户打折呢？]

Many types of payments or favors may be fairly or unfairly labeled as bribes: tip, gift, sop, perk, skim, favor, discount, waived fee/ticket, free food, free ad, free trip, free tickets, sweetheart deal, kickback/payback, funding, inflated sale of an object or property, lucrative contract, donation, campaign contribution, fundraiser, sponsorship/backing, higher paying job, stock options, secret commission, or promotion (rise of position/rank). 许多类型的付款或优惠可能被公平或不公平地标记为贿赂：小费、礼物、sop、额外津贴、撇油、优惠、折扣、免收费用/门票、免费食品、免费广告、免费旅行、免费机票、甜心交易、回扣/回扣、资金、物品或财产的夸大销售、有利可图的合同、捐赠、竞选捐款、筹款、，赞助/支持、高薪工作、股票期权、秘密佣金或晋升（职位/级别的提升）。sop: 1. 泡过牛奶/汤等的面包片等；2. 用以慰藉或讨好某人的事物

A sweetheart deal or sweetheart contract is a contractual agreement, usually worked out in secret, that greatly benefits some of the parties while inappropriately disadvantaging other parties or the public at large. The term was coined in the 1940s to describe corrupt labor contracts that were favorable to the employer rather than the workers, and usually involved some kind of kickback or special treatment for the labor negotiator. “甜心交易”或“甜心合同”是一种合同协议，通常是秘密订立的，它使一些当事人受益匪浅，但不适当地对其他当事人或公众不利。这个词是在20世纪40年代创造的，用来描述有利于雇主而非工人的腐败劳动合同，通常涉及对劳方谈判代表的某种回扣或特殊待遇。

The offence may be divided into two great classes: the one, where a person invested with power is induced by payment to use it unjustly; the other, where power is obtained by purchasing the suffrages of those who can impart it. Likewise, the briber might hold a powerful role and control the transaction; or in other cases, a bribe may be effectively extracted from the person paying it, although this is better known as extortion. 该罪行可分为两大类：一类是，被赋予权力的人被金钱诱使不公正地使用权力；另一方面，权力是通过购买那些能够赋予权力的人的选举权而获得的。同样，行贿者可能会扮演一个强有力的角色，控制交易；或者在其他情况下，行贿可以有效地从行贿者那里提取，尽管这更被称为敲诈勒索。

Politicians receive campaign contributions and other payoffs from powerful corporations, organizations or individuals in return for making choices in the interests of those parties, or in anticipation of favorable policy, also referred to as lobbying. This is not illegal in the United States and forms a major part of campaign finance, though it is sometimes referred to as the money loop. 政客们从有权势的公司、组织或个人那里获得竞选捐款和其他回报，作为回报，他们会为这些政党的利益做出选择，或期待有利的政策，也被称为游说。这在美国并不违法，是竞选资金的主要组成部分，尽管有时被称为钱圈。

Photo of cash found in Congressman William J. Jefferson's freezer in the August 2005 raid was shown to jurors on 8 July 2009:

In some Spanish-speaking countries, bribes are referred to as "mordida" (literally, "bite"). In Arab countries, bribes may be called baksheesh (a tip, gift, or gratuity) or "shay" (literally, "tea"). French-speaking countries often use the expressions "dessous-de-table" ("under-the-table" commissions), "pot-de-vin" (literally, "wine-pot"), or "commission occulte" ("secret commission" or "kickback"). While the last two expressions contain inherently a negative connotation, the expression "dessous-de-table" can be often understood as a commonly accepted business practice. In German, the common term is Schmiergeld ("smoothing money").

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 has a target to substantially reduce corruption and bribery of all forms as part of international effort aimed at ensuring peace, justice and strong institutions. 联合国可持续发展目标16的目标是大幅度减少各种形式的腐败和贿赂，作为旨在确保和平、正义和强大机构的国际努力的一部分。As indicated on the pages devoted to political corruption, efforts have been made in recent years by the international community to encourage countries to dissociate and incriminate as separate offences, active and passive bribery. 正如专门讨论政治腐败的页面所示，国际社会近年来作出了努力，鼓励各国将主动贿赂和被动贿赂分开，并将其列为单独的犯罪。

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