Definition
The corrupt exchange in which something of value is offered, given, solicited, or received with the intent to influence the action, decision, vote, or conduct of a person in an official or fiduciary capacity. Bribery is a two-sided offense: both the person who offers or pays (the briber) and the person who solicits or accepts (the bribee) may be criminally liable.
Two principal forms are recognized in modern law:
1. Public bribery. The offering or receipt of anything of value to influence a public official, government employee, or judicial officer in the performance of their official duties. This is the core historical meaning and the foundation of most criminal statutes.
2. Commercial bribery. The corrupt payment or receipt of value to influence the conduct of an agent, employee, or fiduciary in a private or commercial setting, without any public official involved. This is a modern extension of the doctrine well beyond its common law origins.
Most modern definitions require: (1) something of value; (2) offered, given, or received; (3) with corrupt intent; (4) to influence an official act or breach of duty. The act need not succeed — the offer or solicitation alone is sufficient for the offense.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The act of giving an illegal payment to a person in an official position as a means of influencing their decisions; more broadly, the activity of offering, giving, or accepting such bribes.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The act or practice of giving or taking bribes; the act of influencing the official or political action of another by corrupt inducements." Webster's also notes an obsolete sense: "Robbery; extortion."
The common and legal definitions are largely aligned for public bribery, but the legal term has expanded significantly beyond the ordinary understanding. Most people associate bribery exclusively with government officials or public corruption. The legal doctrine in many jurisdictions now encompasses private commercial settings — bribery of a corporate employee, a labor union official, or a bank officer — where no public function is involved. A researcher relying on the plain English sense of the term will systematically undercount bribery offenses in legal sources.
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Common Confusion
BRIBERY vs. EXTORTION: These offenses are frequently conflated but legally distinct. Bribery involves a voluntary corrupt exchange — the payer acts willingly to obtain a benefit. Extortion involves coercion — the payer parts with value under duress or threat. The distinction matters for both prosecution theory and culpability of the payer. Historical sources (and Anderson's, notably) highlight that in early usage, the roles were reversed: the powerful official who grasped corrupt payment was himself called the "briber." Modern law has fully inverted this — the initiating corruptor is the briber; the recipient is bribed.
BRIBERY vs. GRATUITY: Federal law distinguishes an illegal gratuity (something given for an act already taken or expected, without prior corrupt agreement) from bribery proper (a quid pro quo exchange intended to influence a future act). The distinction carries different penalties and different intent requirements.
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Core Elements
For public bribery, the elements typically required:
1. A thing of value. Broadly construed — money, gifts, promises of future benefit, employment, or any other tangible or intangible advantage. Courts have rejected narrow interpretations limited to cash.
2. Offered, paid, solicited, or received. The exchange is bilateral in structure but unilateral in criminal liability — either side may be charged independently of the other.
3. A public official or person with official duties. At common law, this was confined to judges, jurors, and those in the administration of justice. Modern statutes extend coverage to all government employees, legislators, and in federal law, anyone acting in an official capacity.
4. Corrupt intent to influence an official act. The value must be exchanged with the purpose of influencing how the official performs (or fails to perform) a specific duty. A generalized payment without this nexus may not constitute bribery.
For commercial bribery, element 3 is replaced by a fiduciary, agent, or employee relationship in a private context, and element 4 is replaced by intent to influence a breach of duty to a principal.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Public bribery. Corrupt payments to or by government officials, judges, legislators, or law enforcement.
Judicial bribery. The specific offense of corrupting a judge or juror; the paradigm case at common law and given independent treatment in many historical sources.
Legislative bribery. Corrupt payments to influence a vote or official act of a legislator.
Commercial (or private) bribery. Corrupt payments in private commercial contexts; codified separately in many state statutes and addressed under specific federal schemes.
Bribery of foreign officials. A distinct modern category, prosecuted under dedicated federal and international frameworks, not coextensive with domestic public bribery doctrine.
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Why It Matters in Research
Historical sources define bribery narrowly — confined to judges, jurors, and officials in the administration of justice. Researchers using Bouvier's or Black's (1st ed.) definitions as a guide will miss the substantial doctrinal expansion in the twentieth century to cover all public officials, then private fiduciaries, then foreign officials under dedicated statutes.
The role reversal documented in Anderson's is not merely historical trivia. In early English usage, the word "briber" referred to the grasping official who took corrupt payment, not the payer. Modern law has fully inverted this. Anyone reading pre-modern English sources on "bribers" should be alert to this shift — what the historical sources call the "briber" is what modern law calls the "bribee."
For federal research: the modern federal bribery statute (18 USC 201) distinguishes bribery proper from illegal gratuities, a distinction the historical dictionaries do not make. Conflating these two offenses is a common analytical error when working with federal criminal materials.
Commercial bribery is systematically underrepresented in pre-twentieth century sources. Bouvier's and Burrill's treat it as an extension requiring separate notice; Black's earlier editions barely address it. Modern state codes vary substantially on whether commercial bribery is a standalone offense or subsumed under general fraud or theft statutes.
Corpus researchers should also be aware that bribery overlaps significantly with related offenses — extortion under color of official right, honest services fraud, and Hobbs Act violations — in ways that make precise doctrinal boundaries difficult to map using historical dictionary definitions alone. The encyclopedia entries linked below address the modern federal framework directly.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are largely in agreement on the core definition — the receipt or offer of an undue reward to influence an official in his duties — drawing on the same classical common law sources: Coke (3 Inst. 149), Hawkins (Pleas of the Crown), Russell on Crimes, and Blackstone (4 Commentaries 139). The definition was stable across Bouvier's, Black's, and Burrill's on this foundation.
Burrill adds the useful framing that bribery is the offense of "taking any undue reward by a judge, juror, or other person concerned in the administration of justice, or by a public officer," making explicit that the category was already broader than judges alone. His note on the French root (briber, to devour or eat greedily) aligns with the historical image of the predatory official.
Anderson's is the most historically illuminating of the group, documenting explicitly that in old English usage, "the rapacious dignitary was styled the briber" — meaning the powerful official who extracted corrupt payment was the wrongdoer. Anderson notes the modern inversion: "now, the tempter is the briber and the recipient the bribed." No other shelf dictionary flags this shift as directly.
Where the historical sources collectively fall short: none adequately addresses commercial bribery as a developed doctrine, and none anticipates the bifurcation in modern federal law between bribery and illegal gratuities. Researchers relying solely on shelf dictionary definitions for modern bribery analysis will require substantial supplementation from statutory text and case law.
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Jurisdictional Note
Bribery statutes vary considerably across state codes — particularly on whether commercial bribery is a standalone criminal offense, whether a completed exchange is required or solicitation alone suffices, and how "official act" is defined. Federal law under 18 USC 201 supplies the most developed doctrinal framework for public bribery and has been the subject of significant Supreme Court interpretation on the scope of "official act."
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Bribery and Public Corruption (18 USC 201), The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia
Commercial Bribery, The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia
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