A gift can be a gift.
The etymological journey of gift begins in the Latin debĭta , which translates as “debts” . From that word arose dativum ( "donation" ), which resulted in dativa . A gift, according to what is stated by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) in its dictionary, is something that is given free of charge .
For example: “The elderly billionaire was loved by the neighbors thanks to his constant gifts,” “The artist made several gifts during his stay in the country,” “People do not want gifts to survive: they need genuine work.”
Although it is not its main meaning, the term gift is also associated with a gift, something that one person gives to another to congratulate them on an important achievement or event in their life. As a wedding gift, for example, some people usually give the newlyweds an envelope with money so that they can calmly decide what to invest it in, and this type of gift is usually called a gift.
Giving as a crime
The idea of a gift, in any case, usually appears linked to a crime: bribery , which consists of giving a bribe or a kickback to corrupt someone. The action of bribing involves giving gifts to an official or an authority to carry out or stop carrying out some action, thus acting illegally.
Let's take the case of an inspector who must visit the restaurants of a city to analyze their food situation. If this official finds something that puts the health of diners at risk, he has to close the establishment. One day, upon arriving at a certain restaurant, he notices that there are cockroaches walking on the food and even finds a rat in the middle of the kitchen. The owner of the establishment, to avoid closure, decides to try to bribe the inspector with a gift : an envelope with 5,000 pesos inside. The official accepts the bribe and leaves the restaurant without taking any action. As can be seen, by accepting the gift this man incurred a fault since he did not fulfill his obligations.
Generally, the idea of a gift is associated with a bribe.
A failure of an authority or public official
It is important to highlight that generally the public official or authority demands a gift to ignore one of their obligations . This nuance makes this crime more serious than an exchange totally outside of professional activity, since bribery usually causes harm to many innocent people , whether directly or indirectly; In the previous example, those owners who keep their businesses in order or who pay the fines imposed on them, receive harsher treatment than those who give a gift to the inspectors.
When the public official requests or accepts the gift in exchange for a certain action that he can carry out due to his function, the bribe is called simple ; On the other hand, if the remuneration is used to fail to comply with one of their obligations or to prevent another official from doing their job correctly, we speak of qualified bribery. This last act does not always constitute a crime .
The gift in the private sector
Bribery can also take place between individuals, outside the government sphere, where the word bribery , mentioned above, is also used. In this case, for example, the employee of a private company may accept a gift from a third party in exchange for convincing his employer to make a decision that favors him, such as signing a sales contract.
Already in Ancient Rome there were examples of similar crimes, such as the giving of gifts and other gifts with the aim of buying the votes of citizens, something they tried to prohibit through the law called Cornelia Fulvia .