SAGE Journal Articles

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Stenning, P. C. & Shearing, C. D. (1984). Corporate justice: Some preliminary thoughts. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 17(2), 79-86. 

Summary: Through the rapid modern growth of private security as a form of “internal” policing, and the preference of many large organizations for handling problems “internally” which might previously have been dealt with through the public criminal justice system, both the content and quality of “justice” in Western societies is being radically transformed. Corporate justice is beginning to supersede state justice as the preferred means of resolving disputes, maintaining order and effecting social control. Reflecting on 10 years of research into the growth of private security and its implications in this regard, the authors illustrate how corporate justice, while posing important problems for civil liberties, provides some interesting and innovative approaches to solving problems which have long been unsatisfactorily dealt with by the institutions of public criminal justice.

Questions to Consider:

  1. What are the core elements of corporate justice and how is it different from the traditional criminal justice approach?
     
  2. Why have corporations preferred this method of justice over the criminal justice response?
     
  3. Is the corporate justice model better equipped to deal with white-collar offending?
     

Benson, M. L., Cullen, F. T., & Maakestad, W. J. (1990). Local prosecutors and corporate crime. Crime & Delinquency, 36(3), 356-372. 

Summary: Based on a national survey and interviews, this article describes the attitudes and practices of local prosecutors regarding corporate crime. Although most local prosecutors did not regard corporate crime as a serious problem, their willingness to prosecute increases if an offense causes substantial harm and other agencies fail to act. Despite repeated calls for coordinated responses to corporate crime, relatively few local prosecutors participate in interagency control networks. Those in control networks, however, conducted more prosecutions and expressed greater concern over corporate crime. The commitment of organizational resources and resulting career opportunities thereby created may explain differences between network and non-network districts.

Questions to Consider:

  1. Why is it difficult to prosecute white-collar cases?
     
  2. Why is it important to understand prosecutor’s perceptions of white-collar offending?
     
  3. What type of offense is deflecting attention away from white-collar criminal prosecution?