Responses to corporate versus individual wrongdoing

For many years, researchers assumed that the public was indifferent to corporate wrongdoing, but recent surveys have discovered evidence to the contrary. Taking insights from these data a step further, this study employed an experimental design to examine whether people responded differently to corporate versus individual wrongdoers. We varied the identity of the central actor in a scenario involving harm to workers. Half the respondents were informed that a corporation caused the harm; the remainder were told that an individual did so. Respondents applied a higher standard of responsibility to the corporate actor. For identical actions, the corporation was judged as more reckless and more morally wrong than the individual. Respondents' judgments of the greater recklessness of the corporation led them to recommend higher civil and criminal penalties against the corporation.Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual meetings of the Law and Society Association (1986), the Society for the Study of Social Problems (1986), and the American Psychological Association (1987). Writing was facilitated by a NIMH Fellowship in Psychology and Law at Stanford University to Valerie Hans. The authors wish to thank Jeffrey Davidson, Sam Gaertner, Michael Levi, Nancy Pennington, David Sciulli, Wes Skogan, and Robert Wood for their contributions to the work.     

Legal Consciousness and Responses to Sexual Harassment

Studies of legal mobilization often focus on people who have perceived some wrong, but these studies rarely consider the process that selects them into the pool of potential "mobilizers." Similarly, studies of victimization or targeting rarely go on to consider what people do about the wrong, or why some targets come forward and others remain silent. We here integrate sociolegal, feminist, and criminological theories in a conceptual model that treats experiencing sexual harassment and mobilizing in response as interrelated processes. We then link these two processes by modeling them as jointly determined outcomes and examine their connections using interviews with a subset of our survey respondents. Our results suggest that targets of harassment are selected, in part, because they are least likely to tell others about the experience. We also discuss strategies that workers employ to cope with and confront harassment. We find that traditional formal/informal dichotomies of mobilization responses may not fully account for the range of ways that individuals respond to harassment, and we propose a preliminary typology of responses.     

Responses

This essay is a response to the excellent contributions to the double special issue of Law and Philosophy on my book The Ends of Harm. I further defend the Duty View of punishment outlined in the book, responding to criticisms of that view. I also challenge the plausibility of retributivist accounts offered in response to the challenges to that view developed in The Ends of Harm.     

Offending Frequency and Responses to Illegal Monetary Incentives

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - We examine how responsive offenders are to illegal monetary incentives. We draw from rational choice theory, prospect theory, and models of labor supply to...     

What the Hack: Reconsidering Responses to Hacking

Like most criminological research, much of the research on hacking has predominantly focused upon the Northern Metropolis. As a result, there is a lack of focus on cybercrime within the Global South, particularly on illegal intrusions into computer systems, more colloquially known as hacking. This article provides a critical overview of hacking in the Global South, highlighting the role of strain in this offending behaviour. In particular, the authors note the role of Australian, American, and Taiwanese immigration policies that act to block offenders’ transitions from illicit hacking to legitimate employment in technological hubs outside of the Global South. To address these blocked opportunities, this article suggests the use of innovative justice paradigms, particularly restorative justice and regulatory self-enforcement, that respond to innovation-based cybercrime while also facilitating offender movement into “white hat” employment, even in cases of technology-facilitated sexual violence.

     

Legal Responses to the Standard Form Contract of Employment

Having suggested that the advent of standard form contractsof employment is a neglected aspect of employment law, an assessmentis made of two of the main legal responses to the potentialunfairness of terms, namely implied terms and the applicationof section 3 the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. The Law Commission'sproposed legislative reform is also examined. It is concludedthat only by combining terms implied by the law with the statutoryprotection of reasonable expectations of employees will thelaw succeed in devising an adequate technique for rebalancingcontracts of employment.     

Racial Minority Women and Criminal Justice Responses to Domestic Violence

Racialized minority women’s experiences with Canadian specialized criminal justice responses to domestic violence have seldom been documented. Informed by an intersectionality framework, this qualitative study presents the struggles of 14 racial minority women from three Canadian cities and their experiences with the police and criminal court’s response to their partner’s acts of domestic violence. The results focus on how well specialized criminal justice responses address the needs of these women and protect them from further violence. Factors that facilitate or deter these women from approaching the criminal justice system for help are highlighted. The implications of these women’s narratives for criminal justice responses to domestic violence are discussed.     

Terror and Law: German Responses to 9/11

In reaction to the 9/11 terror attacks the German Parliamentenacted a number of statutes under the auspices of the so-calledwar against terror. The repressive new legislation aims at enhancingsurveillance and control by police and intelligence agenciesby introducing, for example, new passports and ID-cards. Inorder to prevent attacks similar to those of 9/11, Parliamenteven established statutory authority to shoot down, using militaryforce, passenger planes being used as a weapon. At the sametime the Federal Public Prosecutor General has prosecuted anumber of persons as alleged supporters of the 9/11 pilots,and several others, as alleged Islamic terrorists. These forcefulreactions of both Parliament and the Public Prosecutor provedpremature and were overturned by Germany's highest courts. Thefight against terrorism has thus been shown to be bound by constitutionallaw and general principles of law; such special measures stillneed, ultimately to adhere to the rule of law.     

'Mad Cows' and Eurocrats—Community Responses to the BSE Crisis

Abstract: The initial Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy crisis, that is until the imposition of the EU-wide ban on UK beef exports on 27 March 1996, and the failure of the institutions of the EU and Member States to react effectively and efficiently to this developing crisis, brought to light some of the faults in the food safety and animal health part of the EU's system of governance. Responding to criticisms and recommendations made in the aftermath of the initial crisis, particularly by the European Parliament, the EU has embarked on a process of reforming the administrative landscape in this area. This has included the setting-up of a new regulatory agency, the European Food Safety Agency, and a commitment to the more effective use of scientific information. It is submitted that this could lead to the development of new information-based scientific networks that inform and direct EU governance, networks which should contain the European Food Safety Agency at their centre.