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Law, Regulation, and Safety Crime: Exploring the Boundaries of Criminalizing Powerful Corporate Actors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2015

Steven Bittle  and
Laureen Snider
Steven Bittle
Affiliation:
Department of CriminologyUniversity of Ottawasbittle@uottawa.ca
Laureen Snider
Affiliation:
Department of SociologyQueen’s Universitysniderl@queensu.ca
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Abstract

This article interrogates the laws that govern safety crimes, harmful but typically unintentional acts of negligence that occur in the production of goods and services. Acts that injure employees at work are commonly depicted in legal discourses as accidents and penalized through administrative laws, although other negligent acts such as driving offences causing injury or death are treated as potentially criminal events. Through a discourse analysis of legal and regulatory texts and documents, the authors argue that the constitution of workplace safety crime is rooted in complex historical factors that shape state responses to corporate wrongdoing. This article documents the roots of this “common sense” view of workplace crime, empirically focusing on Canadian corporate negligence law, and concludes with tentative strategies of resistance and change.

Résumé

Cet article remet en question les lois concernant les crimes de sécurité, qui sont le plus souvent le résultat d’une négligence délétère mais involontaire dans le processus de production de biens et de services. Les actions qui se soldent par des blessures de travailleurs sont souvent décrites juridiquement comme des accidents et pénalisées par voie administrative, alors que d’autres actions négligentes, comme les infractions au volant causant des blessures ou la mort, sont traitées comme des actes potentiellement criminels. Grâce à une analyse des textes et documents législatifs et réglementaires, les auteurs affirment que la constitution des crimes de sécurité au travail se fonde sur une série de facteurs historiques complexes qui conditionnent la réaction des gouvernements aux fautes commises par les sociétés. L’article documente les origines de cette vision « du bon sens » de la criminalité en milieu de travail en se concentrant de façon empirique sur le droit de la négligence des entreprises au Canada, et conclut sur des pistes de stratégies de résistance et de changement.

Keywords

corporate crimesafety crimesregulationgovernancedriving offencescriminalité des entreprisescrimes de sécuritéréglementationgouvernanceinfractions au volant
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , December 2015 , pp. 445 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association / Association Canadienne Droit et Société 2015 

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