EU corruption survey pooled dataset 2019 and 2022

Despite the long-standing anti-corruption campaigns that put citizens at the center, we have limited criminological data about the reporting decisions of people who pay bribes. Relying on the quantitative multivariate analysis of a dataset covering 27 European Union countries, this paper explores determinants of reporting decisions of people who recently experienced or witnessed bribes. Only 15,3% of the respondents have reported their case. The multilevel approach was chosen to account for both the individual characteristics and the different contexts in which they live. Results suggest that among individual-level variables, education and the assessment of government efforts to combat corruption shape reporting decisions. Employment status has marginal effect. These variables retain their significance even when country-level variable is controlled for. The variation between people across countries is better explained by the Corruption Perception Index. Within the same country, self-reported perception of corruption matters little in affecting reporting. The findings represent an important contribution to the literature on crime reporting and can be used by anti-corruption advocates to understand how to improve citizen cooperation in the fight against corruption.