This chapter examines the emergence of the concept of corporate crime, discussing its meaning and reviewing the extent to which it represents a crime problem. It then considers various dimensions of corporate crime—its visibility, causation, and control—questioning society's will to censure and punish company directors and other ‘rogue’ capitalists.
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the law on corporate criminality, covering the difficulty in convicting companies of crimes; corporate killing; and vicarious liability. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 created a new offence of corporate manslaughter. This can be committed where the way in which a company’s activities are managed or organized amounts to a gross negligence and causes someone’s death. In a limited number of crimes, a company can be guilty in respect of the acts of one of its employees under the doctrine of vicarious liability. The second part of the chapter focuses on theoretical issues in corporate liability, covering the reality of corporate crime; the clamour for corporate liability; whether a company should be guilty of a crime; and what form corporate crime should take.
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Course-focused and comprehensive, the Textbook on series provides an accessible overview of the key areas on the law curriculum. This chapter considers some of the influences that shape public perceptions, with particular attention to the impact of media. It then looks at some of the most problematic misconceptions about crime. The chapter illustrates the limitations of public conceptions with two brief case studies which outline specific areas of criminal activity that are not popularly perceived as criminal, namely, ‘white-collar crime’ and ‘corporate crime’.
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14. Global criminology 2
Transnational criminology
Sacha Darke
This chapter highlights instances of crime and justice that cross national borders. The chapter is therefore concerned with how global economic, social, and political connections facilitate the organisation of crime and the coordination of justice. The chapter begins by outlining the scope of transnational criminology, looking at the theoretical concepts it employs and its defining characteristics. It then explores some of its major areas of research interest: state terror, drug trafficking, people smuggling, the trade in and dumping of toxic waste, and cybercrime. Finally, the chapter addresses two of the most prominent academic debates within and associated with transnational criminology: the extent to which transnational crime is hierarchical and organised, and the means by which the international community might best police it.
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Michael Levi and Nicholas Lord
This chapter presents a succinct overview of key debates and ideas associated with theory, research, and practice in the area of white-collar and corporate crimes. First, it considers white-collar and corporate crimes in the twenty-first century, contextualizing these phenomena and reinforcing their criminological significance. Second, it revisits on-going conceptual debates, identifying central analytical features of white-collar and corporate crimes before going on to argue in favour of shifting attention towards understanding how white-collar crimes are organized and the conditions that shape this over time. Third, it reviews ways of explaining these behaviours, ranging from consideration of individual propensities and rationality through organizational context and culture to wider social conditions. Fourth, it examines current policing and regulation strategies, concluding with a discussion of key themes in white-collar crime research and scholarship.
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This chapter introduces criminal liability for non-compliance with English environmental law. Environmental crime can be defined as behaviour that contravenes statutory provisions for the protection of the ecological and physical environment, where there is some kind of punitive sanction imposed for the contravention, with such provisions sometimes also pursuing the protection of public health. Environmental crime can also include criminal offences created through the common law, such as public nuisance. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss overarching themes, such as key elements of strict liability offences, in criminalizing behaviour that damages the environment, rather than details of specific offences spelt out in particular statutes. The argument here is that environmental crime sits uneasily within the environmental law regulatory landscape, which has been shaped in the UK in recent years by co-operative, ‘better regulation’ agendas that seek to reduce burdens on business.
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Avi Brisman and Nigel South
Criminology must maintain relevance in a changing world and engage with new challenges. Perhaps pre-eminent among those facing the planet today are threats to the natural environment and, by extension, to human health and rights and to other species. A green criminology has emerged as a (now well-established) criminological perspective that addresses a wide range of crimes, harms and offences related to the environment and environmental victims. This chapter provides a review of green criminological work on climate change, consumption and waste, state-corporate and organized crimes, animal abuse, and wildlife trafficking. It also considers the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to regulation, enforcement and control.
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Avi Brisman and Nigel South
Criminology must maintain relevance in a changing world and engage with new challenges. Perhaps pre-eminent among those facing the planet today are threats to the natural environment and, by extension, to human health and rights and to other species. A green criminology has emerged as a (now well established) criminological perspective that addresses a wide range of harms, offences, and crimes related to the environment and environmental victims. This chapter provides a review of green criminological work on climate change, consumption and waste, state-corporate and organized crimes, animal abuse, and wildlife trafficking. It also considers the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to regulation and control.
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The focus in this chapter is on the values the criminal law seeks to protect through criminalization. First, key ‘intrinsic values’ are considered, such as bodily integrity and sexual autonomy. Second, an analysis of ‘public goods’ is provided. Public goods are goods in which we have no individual right or share, but which benefit us in common with others. The criminal law protects public goods as part of its role in supporting our many different lives in common, as consumers, employees, users of roads and of public transport, and so on. The security of the state, openness and integrity in corporate governance and public life, and the common pool resource of a welfare system are all very different examples of public goods in this sense.
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The focus in this chapter is on the values the criminal law seeks to protect, through criminalization. First, key ‘intrinsic values’ are considered, such as bodily integrity and sexual autonomy. Secondly, an analysis of ‘public goods’ is provided. Public goods are goods in which we have no individual right or share, but which benefit us in common with others. The criminal law protects public goods as part of its role in supporting our many different lives in common, as consumers, employees, users of roads and of public transport, and so on. The security of the state, openness and integrity in corporate governance and public life, and the common pool resource of a welfare system are all very different examples of public goods in this sense.
