Reviews for Power, crime, and mystification

The average rating for Power, crime, and mystification based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-03-06 00:00:00 Ben Evenrude This is a classic study that is still relevant 35 years later. (First published in 1983) Written with great style and eloquence. The crimes of the powerful (the state and corporations) victimise those communities within which ‘anti-social behaviour’ arises. The state and corporations are not seen to themselves have ‘anti-social’ behaviour. We should be asking if those behind bars are our most dangerous criminals? Few know about the crimes of the managerial classes. The justice system presents itself as a community service dispensing justice for all. ‘Every one is equal before the law’. The same laws apply to all people etc. The bias of its operation is hidden. But this does create a contradiction that can be used to turn the justice system against the masters. This needs to be done with extraordinary persistence and fortitude to succeed. But there have been successes in the UK such as The Hillsborough Inquiry and the Blacklisting campaign success. Others are ongoing and need our unflagging support... examples are JENGbA, The Birmingham 6 and the Deepcut Inquiry. (I’d like to see an extensive list… if anyone has one) The criminal system exaggerates and publicises the crimes of the powerlesss whilst hiding the crimes of the powerful against the powerless. CORPORATE CRIME The damage caused by corporate crime is not well-known. It is, however much greater than the social damage of conventional criminality. Corporate crimes kill about six times as many people. “Corporate crime is rendered invisible by it's complex and sophisticated planning and execution, non-existent or weak law enforcement and prosecution, and by lenient legal and social sanctions which fail to reaffirm or reinforce collective sentiments on moral boundaries.” p.16 Corporate crime defined: Box is not talking about ‘white collar crime’ or criminal corporations like those run by Mafia like gangsters. “Organisational crimes are illegal acts of omission or commission of an individual or group of individuals in a legitimate formal organisation in accordance with the operative goals of the organisation which have a serious physical or economic impact on employees, consumers or the general public.” Schrager and Short 1977 p.20 To what extent is this ‘merely’ the normal effect of the competition and pursuit of profit that is built into capitalism? When does simple competitive costing-cutting become unethical? The more corporations are put under pressure to deliver profit the more likely the people working for them will resort to corporate criminal activity. Gangs tend to only kill each other but corporate crime kills indiscriminately. Corporate crime shows distain for humanity in general. Indifference is a quality that is cultivated in business and is deeply embedded in bourgeois culture and attitudes. Corporate crime is often dealt with not through the criminal courts but by separate agencies and ‘regulatory bodies’. In this way it is not seen as ‘real’ crime even when people die. Box’s sources estimate that corporate crime, whether through intent or negligence, kills a person every few minutes in North America. This is a rate much greater than the homicides recorded by conventional crime statistics. But the stats may be downplayed by industrially related causes of death being muted - for instance death certificates did not record diseases caused by asbestos. ref BSSRS (1979) The same goes for robbery. We may fear being mugged more but we are more likely to be robbed by a apparently ‘respectable’ corporation. And it is the big corporations, and high ranking officials, that are more likely to be guilty of these crimes than the smaller ones. These people tend to be shrewd rather than intelligent. The temptation is high because the chances of being caught and punished are low. Punishments for corporate wrong-doers are often small fines rather than jail sentences. Whereas poor people who are fined a similar amount are likely to end up in jail for default on payment of their fine! Box bemoans the limitations of public inspectorates and even when they apprehend a corporate criminal the poorly resourced agency lawyers, compared with those that the corporation can afford, leans heavily against justice being done. Governments will often bend with pressure from right-wing media to focus on welfare fraud rather than corporate fraud. For a start going after poor individuals is more likely to result in convictions. J. Braithwaite sums this up in his book ‘Inequality, crime and public policy’: “Transnational corporate corruption is therefore perhaps the most pernicious form of crime in the world today because it involves robbing a poor to feed the rich, and brings into political power rulers and administrators who in general will put self-interest ahead of the public interest, and transnational Corporation interest ahead of National interest.” (1979) p.33 The greater the pressures to make profit the greater is the motivation to commit crimes. The average corporate employee is not a whistle blower and most will know that those above them in the chain of command will blame those under them rather than accept responsibility for a criminal ‘oversight’. Corporations also have an undue influence in shaping the law into their own image. In fact the whole reason the state exists in the form it does, is to promote the business of the ruling class and to find a consensus that allows this. Whilst at the same time repressing any counter proposals or interests - such as the health and welfare of the poorer half of the voting population. To put it more bluntly they can often prevent laws that could injure profits, even if business as usual cause serious harm. This is complex in practice because, as we have pointed out the law has to be appear fair and just and guided by ‘universal principles’ (p.66). Likewise business needs an image of conformity and respectability. They are not ‘emotionally driven crimes being the result of a cold assessment of the costs versus rewards (ie business principles). But we should see this as emotionally driven in a negative way that they are emotionally removed from empathy in the process of those cost v rewards judgements that are made. This lack of empathy goes to the core of class oppression. The complexity of the law benefits specialists (corporate lawyers) and militates against the average person being able to defend themselves. “Innocent wives and children and other dependents are made to suffer when the state imprisons thousands of working class men for crimes which are often insignificant compared with corporate crimes.” p.71 In other words the social cost of such everyday imprisonment is high. A social accounting of this damage needs to be described. This is really a description of the pathology of capitalism, but he veers away from such a conclusion whilst at the same saying that attempts to control the ethics of corporate behaviour “has atrophied in the withering light of pragmatism.” p.78 In my view an objective assessment of the benefits versus the damage done by the current system would appeal to a wide range of voters who are generally depicted as incapable of critical thought. He goes on to discuss police crime and women and crime. POLICE CRIME and WOMEN AND CRIME. He argues that crime by the police is “endemic and inherent in the nature of police work” as against the occasional bad apple theory promoted through the media. He also goes into the way the crime is largely a male problem and the victims are more often women. Somewhat heartening in the light of the recent #meto uprising of women. ie 35 years after this book was first published there seem to be some signs of progress. CONCLUSIONS These are all a indictment of an economic system that is driven by money and the profit motive but he is unwilling to go there. He pins his hopes of a more democratic control of business and legal systems much in the way that Habermas does. Perhaps the struggles to re-municipalise water supply, and to defend public water, would be an interesting case study. Do state run or public bodies lead to less incidence of corporate crimes? Are there organisational forms that are more resistant to corruption and criminality? How are public bodies best regulated to keep them ethical and efficient? The case for ending capitalism is implied by his argument about how hopeless it is go achieve wisespread success against corporate crime. Nonetheless successes are to be celebrated. eg The VW chair in N. America that has just been jailed for 7 years An example of success against the police is The Worboys Victims appeal against police win on 21 - 2- 18. Victims of serious crime may be able to sue the police for failures in their investigations following a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court. Another example of success against the police which shows the persistence needed: “Apology to Don Lorenzo's complaint after he was thrown down stairs during his arrest in 2007”. It only took 10 years! The prison system was an area that interested Box but his publisher persuaded him not to add that chapter! “One researcher, Barry Goldson, described children being ‘dredged from the deepest reservoirs of structural neglect and institutionalised immiseration’. In an era of hysteria around celebrity sex offenders like Jimmy Savile, the media fails to recognise the state-sanctioned child abuse of companies profiteering from the growing prison industrial complex centred on social control.” To get an updated picture see: "The sneakiness of English and Welsh law is breathtaking. That was the overwhelming understanding I took from studying it. It will outwit you in the most bewildering of ways, because 'creative empiricism' is far more flexible than principled, axiomatic universalism. Nina Power 2/3/18 fbk

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-14 00:00:00 Vanessa Pelle This book gives a good understanding of the "crime" is and how this concept has developed thorough the history. I was reading it to understand better why corporate crime has been described many years ago but did not find any legal regulation. I would say that the book is really makes you think about causes, law and order.