The answer of the Colombian State to corruption from criminal law

La respuesta del Estado colombiano a la corrupción desde el Derecho penal

Corruption has proved to be one of the main problems to be fought by States in recent times, the devastating effects on the economy, democracy, social development, the degeneration of constitutional values, necessarily lead to a response from States, which should be criminal law as ultima ratio. In the present investigation, we sought to study the phenomenon of corruption in the public and private sectors in Colombia, making necessary the use of qualitative and quantitative methods, in which the phenomenon could be addressed from the figures, in order to establish a description of it for the Colombian case, concluding that corruption in Colombia is fundamentally public, being systemic and organized; the phenomenon in the private sector is sporadic, although the figures indicate a high level of perception of corruption in this sector, it is not verifiable with convictions, as well as the low number of criminal news. However, despite the fact that the Colombian State has given an optimal response from criminal law, it remains incongruous in its criminal policy, because it has adopted strong punitive measures, but ignores the preventive ones, where the root of the phenomenon must be fought.