Integrity of the judiciary

Analysis shows that judicial independence is strongly related to levels of organized crime. Results also show a strong correlation between the perceived independence of the judiciary and the perceived extent of judicial corruption. Statistical analysis confirmed here that independent judges were less vulnerable to corruption and better able to implement repressive actions against organized crime, even when the political system and other areas of the State had been captured by organized crime.
 Corrupt judges were found to abuse their substantive and procedural discretion through rulings that slowed down or obstructed law enforcement in organized criminal cases.


 Among the factors making it possible for organized crime to capture the court system, the most significant are procedural complexity and abuses of substantive judicial discretion.