Choosing Between Criminal and Civil Sanctions for Corporate Wrongs (From Corporations as Criminals, P 85-102, 1984, Ellen Hochstedler, ed. See NCJ-94652)

• NCJ Number: 94656
• Author(s): N Frank
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper uses the development of health and safety codes to demonstrate how concepts of criminal boundaries and blameworthiness underlie the legal codes.

Abstract

The development of the Model Penal Code and the Proposed Federal Criminal Code demonstrates that notions about the inappropriateness of strict criminal liability influenced the formulation of proposed laws. These proposals, however, in the course of being transformed into actual bills, lost the aim of eliminating strict criminal liability. The history of these bills leaves little room to doubt the conclusion that industry opposition did indeed quash the extension of criminal liability for the dangerous business activities. Thus, the choice of sanctions in the law relating to health and safety is the product of both ideas and interests. The rejection of strict criminal liability set the stage for the development of civil penalties as substitutes for earlier criminal penalties. Business interests operated against this backdrop to further limit the legal liabilities for dangerous activities. A full understanding of contemporary law in relation to business conduct requires attention to legal ideas as well as the manifest interests and power of the business community. Three notes, 4 cases, and 35 references are included.