Corporate Crime: Contemporary Debates

Rebecca Murdock is a lawyer with the Toronto firm Ryder Wright Blair &
Doyle.

Based on papers presented at a 1992 international conference held at
Queen’s University, this anthology offers an impressive array of case
studies and theoretical analyses of corporate crime. At the theoretical
end of the spectrum, academic authorities from diverse fields offer
competing and complementary viewpoints. John Braithwaite investigates
the evolution of “new republicanism” in Australia and its
contribution to greater corporate compliance. Canadian Law professor
Harry Glasbeek critiques current interpretations of the corporation as a
“rational economic man” with a natural agenda of profit
accumulation. For Glasbeek, a system that endorses corporate goals can
hardly be relied on to effectively constrain those same capitalist
objectives.

At the practical end of the spectrum, Part 3 investigates crime in the
financial sector. Michael Levi observes that the public generally views
financial crimes by distinguished white-collar executives as less
important than street crimes committed by unemployed youth. Ironically,
authorities are under more community pressure to act punitively toward
the latter—whose criminal proceeds produce a fraction of that
generated in corporate spheres. It is against this backdrop that Levi
examines Guiness, Blue Arrow, and other serious financial frauds in
Great Britain.

The cost of corporate deviance is most thoroughly examined in Part 4.
Here various contributors discuss the impact of noncompliance in
occupational health and safety law. As the editors point out, “people
are statistically much more likely to die on the job than down a dark
alley in a major city.” Vivienne Walters et al. examine the common
perception that employees are often responsible for their own workplace
injuries and deaths, a rationalization that neatly displaces corporate
responsibility.

Finally, Part 5 contains four essays on environmental crimes. Harold C.
Barnett discusses the failure of the Superfund in the United States,
while Kernaghan Webb argues convincingly for regulatory sanctions over
criminal prosecution because, under Canadian regulatory law, it is the
defendant who bears the onus of proving “due diligence.”

The 19 short essays are grouped logically, with the sections linked
thematically in the editors’ prefatory remarks. Four supplemental
sections appear at the end of the text: Cases Cited, Works Cited, Author
Index, and Subject Index. This cutting-edge resource offers a first-rate
examination of all aspects of the corporate-crime debate.