Regulator-Required Corporate Compliance Program Audits

This paper critically examines the ability of compliance program audits to provide adequate assurance of compliance system performance. The empirical evidence comes from the use of compliance program audits in monitoring compliance with enforceable undertakings agreed upon between companies (that have allegedly breached the law) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The evidence suggests that the primary value of compliance program audits in this context is as a management review that induces better compliance. Nevertheless, it may be the formal regulatory expectation of verification (and the belief that it is possible) that gives the compliance review its power to encourage management to listen and respond to auditors' recommendations for improvement.
The danger is that the review aspect of the audit will be captured by management concerns. This is evident in a tendency for the audit methodology to focus on management systems at the expense of forensic investigation of harm done (or likely to be done) to consumers and investors, and in a failure to seek out public opinion and input. This style of audit undermines the basic regulatory objective of democratic accountability for corporate responsibility. I conclude by using the literature on critical social audits to show that there is, nonetheless, significant potential for compliance program audits to open corporate management to democracy, and to make some suggestions as to how this might be possible.     

THE POLITICS OF PARTICIPATION AND NONPARTICIPATION IN DISPUTE PROCESSES

Although the access to justice movement has placed great emphasis on expanding participation in dispute processing through informal mechanisms, little theoretical or empirical research in the area has explored the relationship between the organization of dispute processing and legal participation. This article develops a framework for investigating that relationship by examining the ideological and organizational structure of participation and nonparticipation in a comparison between mediation and prosecution of minor criminal cases. The analysis suggests that the concept of participation associated with informal mechanisms has played a role in transforming the institutional legitimacy of dispute processing, yet patterns of participation in conventional dispute processes are reproduced in the neighborhood justice center.     

Population characteristics and sex-role patterns in a yough-run crisis center

A youth-run crisis/counseling center was studied by participant observation. The population was found to be predominatly white and young and equally divided between males and females. All social classes and both urban and suburban residents were present. The staff was significantly older, more educated, and of a higher social class than the nonstaff. Nonstaff included frequenters, mostly male, who hung around and were not counseled; counselees, mostly female, who were counseled at least twice; and drop-ins, whose contacts with the organization were brief. People who presented themselves as having a problem were almost always counseled. Males were counseled less than females because they rarely stated they had a problem. Females were more likely to be perceived as having a problem.This paper is based on the author's Master of Public Health research essay for the Yale University School of Medicine.The author has been a teacher, Peace Corps volunteer, and health planner and is presently enrolled in Yale's Doctor of Public Health program in Health Economics.