Re-imagining crime prevention: Controlling corporate crime?

Crime, Law and Social Change

Volumn 45, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 1-25

  Alvesalo, Anne ^a   Tombs, Steve ^b   Virta, Erja ^c   Whyte, Dave ^d  

^a Poliisiammattikorkeakoulu   (Finland)

^b LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^c Authority Co operation Development Project   (Finland)

^d UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33748708398     PISSN: 09254994     EISSN: 15730751     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s10611-005-9004-2     Document Type: Review

References (74)

1. We wish to acknowledge the extremely detailed, insightful and positive comments received following the submission to this Journal of the original version of this paper.
2. Gordon, Hughes, "The Shifting Sands of Crime Prevention and Community Safety", in G. Hughes, E. McLaughlin, and J. Muncie (eds.), Crime Prevention and Community Safety. New directions (London: Open University Press/Sage, 2002), pp.2-3.
3. Hillyard, Paddy, Joe Sim, Steve Tombs and Dave Whyte, "Leaving a 'Stain on the Silence' : contemporary criminology and the politics of dissent", British Journal of Criminology, 2004(44, 3).
4. With few notable exceptions, such as Hazel Croall, "Business, Crime and the Community", International Journal of Risk, Security and Crime Prevention, 1998(3), 281-292.
5. Markku Lehtola and Kauko Paksula, Talousrikosten Tilannetorjunta, (Helsinki: Oikeuspoliittinen Tutkimuslaitos 1997).
6. The Finnish case is - to the best of our knowledge - unique, but there have existed, and do exist, smaller scale efforts to control corporate crime through crime control practices and discourse. For example, in New Zealand (although it ultimately ran into difficulties in implementation) we find "white-collar crime' identified as one of seven key national crime prevention areas (in the 1994 New Zealand Crime Prevention Strategy published by Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Wellington, October);
7. Bradley, Trevor and Reece Walters, "The Managerialism of Crime Prevention and Community Safety: the New Zealand Experience", in G. Hughes, E. McLaughlin and J. Muncie (eds.) Crime Prevention and Community Safety: new directions (London: Sage, 2002).
8. Hazel Croall, "Business, Crime and the Community", International Journal of Risk, Security and Crime Prevention, 1998(3), 281-292;
9. Dave Whyte, "All that Glitters Isn't Gold: environmental crimes and the production of local criminological knowledge", Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 2004(6, 1).
10. We are grateful to Jonny Burnett for pointing out this phenomenon that he has encountered in the course of his own research fieldwork.
11. Whyte, D. (2004) "Punishing Anti-Social Business', New Law Journal, 3rd September. 1293.
12. These considerations are not, and cannot here, be exhaustive of course, so that there is an element of subjectivity in our selection of these aspects. However, what we hope they do achieve is to indicate both the possibilities and importance of imagining corporate crime control in this general way
13. Marcus Felson, Crime and Everyday Life (London: Pine Forge, 1993).
14. Steven Box, Power, Crime, and Mystification (London: Routledge, 1983),
15. Potter, Gary and Karen Miller, "Thinking About White-Collar Crime", in G. Potter (ed.) Controversies in White-Collar Crime (Cincinnati: Andersen, 2002),
16. Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Rich and the Poor Get Prison, 4th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995),
17. Gary Slapper and Steve Tombs, Corporate Crime (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1999).
18. See, for example, Tim Hope, "The Road Taken: Evaluation, replication and crime reduction", in G. Hughes, E. McLaughlin and J. Muncie (eds.), Crime Prevention and Community Safety: New Directions (London: Sage, 2002).
19. NACRO, CCTV on not to CCTV? A review of current research into the effectiveness of CCTV systems in reducing crime (Community Safety Practice Briefing, London: NACRO, 2002).
20. Anne Alvesalo, "Downsized by Law, Ideology and Pragmatics - Policing White Collar Crime", in G. Potter (ed.), Controversial Issues in White-Collar Crime (Anderson Publishing: Cincinnati, 2002).
21. Sewell, Graham and Barry Wilkinson, "Someone to Watch Over Me': Surveillance, Discipline and the Just in Time Process", Sociology, 1992(26), 271-289.
22. Roy Coleman, Reclaim the Streets (Collumpton: Willan, 2004);
23. Tim Newburn, "The Introduction of CCTV into a Custody Suite: Some Reflections on Risk, Surveillance and Policing", in A. Crawford (ed.) Crime and Insecurity: The Governance of Safety in Europe (Collumpton, Willan, 2002).
24. For an overview, see Michael Cavadino and James Dignan, The Penal System: an introduction (London: Sage, 1992),
25. and for a classic statement, see Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: the birth of the prison (New York, Pantheon, 1977).
26. Edwin Sutherland, White Collar Crime: the uncut version (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983).
27. Frank Pearce and Steve Tombs, Toxic Capitalism: corporate crime in the chemical industry (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), pp.233-244
28. Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "Working for Criminalisation of Economic Offending: contradictions for critical criminology?", Critical Criminology, 2002(11), 21-40.
29. Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, Critical Criminology, Ibid., 296.
30. Frank Pearce and Steve Tombs, Toxic Capitalism: corporate crime in the chemical industry (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), p.297.
31. Marcus Felson, "Those Who Discourage Crime", in J. Eck and D. Weisburd (eds.) Crime and Place (New York: Criminal Justice Press, 1995).
32. Steve Tombs, "The 'Causes' of Corporate Crime", Criminal Justice Matters, 2004(55, Spring).
33. Centre for Corporate Accountability, Safety Last: the under-enforcement of health and safety law (London: CCA and Unison, 2002).
34. Phil James and David Walters (eds.), Regulating Health and Safety at Work: the way forward (London: Institute of Employment Rights, 1999), 83, UK Parliament (1998) Hansard, 20 May: Column 934 (London: UK Parliament, 1998).
35. Sandra Walklate, Understanding Criminology: current theoretical debates, 2nded. (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2003), pp.127-129.
36. See Ben Bowling, Violent Racism: victimisation, policing and social context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
37. and Elizabeth Stanko, "When Precaution is Normal: a feminist critique of crime prevention", in L. Gelsthorpe and A. Morris (eds.) Feminist Perspectives in Criminology (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1990), respectively.
38. For example, see Aulette, Judy Root and Raymond Michalowski, "Fire in Hamlet: A Case Study of a State-Corporate Crime", in N. Shover and J. Wright (eds.) Crimes of Privilege: readings in white-collar crime (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001),
39. Kit (W.G.) Carson, The Other Price of Britain's Oil: safety and control in the North Sea (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1982),
40. and Courtney Davis, Corporate Violence, Regulatory Agencies and the Management and Deflection of Censure (Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Southampton, 2000).
41. For example Rene van Swaaningen, "Towards a Replacement Discourse on Community Safety: lessons from the Netherlands", in G. Hughes, E. McLaughlin and J. Muncie (eds) Crime Prevention and Community Safety: new directions (London: Sage, 2002).
42. Adam Crawford, Crime Prevention and Community Safety: politics, policies and practices (Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1998).
43. Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "Working for Criminalisation of Economic Offending: contradictions for critical criminology?", Critical Criminology, 2002(11), 21-40.
44. A term common in the Nordic countries, which refers to both 'white-collar' and 'corporate' crime.
45. See Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "The Emergence of a 'War' on Economic Crime: the case of Finland". Business and Politics, 2001(3:3), 239-267,
46. and Pearce, Frank and Steve Tombs, "States, Corporations and the 'New' World Order", in G. Potter (ed.) Controversies in White-Collar Crime (Cincinnati: Andersen, 2002), 185-222.
47. Anne Showstack Sassoon, "Globalisation, Hegemony and Passive Revolution", New Political Economy, 2001(6:1), 9.
48. Laureen Snider, "The Regulatory Dance: understanding reform processes in corporate crime", International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 1991(19).
49. Nils Christie, "Suitable Enemies", in Bianchi, H. and van Swaaningen, R., eds., Abolitionism. Towards a non-repressive approach to crime (Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1986), 43-54.
50. Anne Alvesalo, The Dynamics of Economic Crime Control (Espoo: The Police College of Finland, 2003).
51. Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "Can Economic Crime Control Be Sustained?", Innovation: the European Journal of Social Science Research, 2001(14:1), 35-53. 2001a.).
52. See Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "The Emergence of a 'War' on Economic Crime: the case of Finland",
53. Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "Can Economic Crime Control Be Sustained'?", Innovation: the European Journal of Social Science Research, 2001(14:1), 35-53.
54. Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "Can Economic Crime Control Be Sustained'?", Innovation: the European Journal of Social Science Research, 2001(14:1), 35-53. Ibid.
55. Ministry of Justice, Working together for a safe society (The National Crime Prevention Program, Helsinki: Ministry of Justice, 1999.
56. Working together for a safe society, Ibid., 1.
57. Working together for a safe society, Ibid., 22-25.
58. Ministry of Justice, Toteutuvatko turvallisuustalkoot? Seurantaraportti kansallisen rikoksentorjuntaohjelman toteutuksesta. [Did the national crime prevention program come true? A follow-up report], (Helsinki: Ministry of Justice, 2003), p.67.
59. Anne Alvesalo, The Dynamics of Economic Crime Control (Espoo: The Police College of Finland, 2003).
60. As at Autumn 2002, TAHTO held, besides much else, basic data on: 499,789 companies and traders (trade register), 1,016,879 people in charge of companies, 2,529 company addresses (trade register), 354,206 company addresses, details of 2,300 foreign companies, and 116,581 risk classifications.
61. Tombs, Steve and Dave Whyte, "Capital Fights Back: from Cullen to Crine in the Offshore Oil Industry", Studies in Political Economy, 1998(57, September).
62. It also supports the need for greater systematic empirical research, and theoretical interrogation of empirical data, in order that the globalisation debate might move further beyond assertion, assumption and/or contradiction. Such research may be focused upon particular policy-issues, may be nation-specific or comparative, may be largely quantitative or qualitative; but that it is actually done is crucial, not least from a political point of view, where the 'logic of no alternative' is not simply wrong but may, ironically, edge towards becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
63. Taloussanomat, 'Editorial', 27 March 2001.
64. See http://www.transparency.org/surveys/index.html. Notwithstanding the fact these surveys are based on perceptions of corruption in government and by public officials, and some general methodological and epistemological difficulties with all such surveys, we find this of some significance as one index of perceptions of probity in and around business activity, and thus relevant in the context of investment decisions.
65. OECD, Regulatory Reform in Finland. Government Capacity to Assure High Quality Regulation, Paris: OECD, 2003: 5.
66. But for fuller treatments, see Anne Alvesalo, "A Sitting Duck or a Trojan Horse? Critical Criminology, control and white-collar crime", The Critical Criminologist, 1999(9), 5-7,
67. and Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "Working for Criminalisation of Economic Offending: contradictions for critical criminology?", Critical Criminology, 2002(11), 21-40.
68. Alvesalo, Anne and Steve Tombs, "The Emergence of a 'War' on Economic Crime: the case of Finland", Business and Politics, 2001(3:3), 239-267.
69. Edwin Sutherland, White Collar Crime: the uncut version (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), p.60.
70. Laureen Snider, "The Regulatory Dance: understanding reform processes in corporate crime", International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 1991(19).
71. Ronald Kramer, "Criminologists and the Social Movement Against Corporate Crime", Social Justice, 1989(16), 146-164.
72. Dave Whyte, "All that Glitters Isn't Gold: environmental crimes and the production of local criminological knowledge", Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 2004(6, 1).
73. Braithwaite, John, Peter Grabosky and Wilson, P., "The Myth of Community Tolerance Toward White-Collar Crime', Australia and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 1987(20), 33-44.
74. Thomas Mathiesen, "Towards the 21st Century: Abolition- An Impossible Dream", in W. West and R. Morris (eds.) The Case for Penal Abolition (Ontario: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2000).