crimes of the powerful (marxism) Flashcards
what are crimes of the powerful?
focuses on how higher-class and corporate offenders are less likely to be prosecuted
example: Grenfell tower
- fire killed 72 people, blame laid on local and national governments
- the buildings management company and the corporations it had contracted to renovate the power - 460 companies involved in various work at grenfell over the years
- police have to analyse over 31million documents
how does SUTHERLAND define white collar/corporate crime?
‘a crime committed by a person of responsibility and high status in the course of his/her occupation’
what are the two types of white collar/corporate crime? (SUTHERLAND)
OCCUPATIONAL - committed by employees simply for their own gain - stealing from their employer
CORPORATE - committed by employees for their organisation to increase company profits
four genres of corporate crime
financial - tax evasion, money laundering, bribery
against consumers - false labelling
against employees - discrimination, estimated 1,100 deaths due to health and safety violations
against environment - emissions from cars
CARRABINE: abuse of trust
- we trust high status professionals with our health, finances and security
- accountancy firms devise tax avoidance schemes for wealthy clients - huge cost to taxpayer
- UK dentists have claimed large amounts of money from the NHS for treatment that has not been carried out
examples of abuse of trust
harold shipman - killed 250 patients between 1975 and 1998, despite being convicted for obtaining controlled drugs in 1976
thalidomide scandal - resulted in the births of thousands of deformed babies
how is white collar crime invisible?
- limited coverage of white collar crime, more focus on WC crime
- language desensitises seriousness
- lack of political will to tackle it
- crimes often too complex to understand
- de-labelling: described as civil offences rather than criminal - fines used as punishment rather than prison
- victims often unaware
how is corporate crime becoming more visible?
there have been more reports of tax avoidance by large corporations - google, amazon etc
e.g. PPI scandal
explanations behind corporate crime: MERTON’s strain theory
- if a company cannot achieve its goal, it may employ illegal tactics
- when their financial performance starts to deteriorate, they could innovate to achieve their goals
SUTHERLAND: companies justifying crime
- sees crime as socially learned behaviour
- if a companies culture justifies crime, employees will be socialised into criminality to achieve goals
- culture of business may promote a competitive, aggressive personality who is willing to commit crime
- neutralisation to justify: just carrying out orders from above
NELKEN - de-labelling
- an act counts as a crime only if it has been labelled as such
- companies have the resources to hire lawyers and accountants to avoid negative labels being applied
- NELKEN refers to this as de-labelling
marxist perspective on corporate crime
- see crime as resulting from capitalism to maximise profits
- capitalism controls the state, so can avoid making laws that conflict with interests
- companies only conform with the law when strictly enforced
- capitalism is all about profits, so unstable goods, low wages, polluting environment are inevitable
- e.g. grenfell tower
evaluation (criticisms)
- both strain theory / marxists over-predict corporate crime - many companies don’t commit crime
- many non-profit, large organisations such as police/civil service/army commit crimes - fails to explain this
