NCJ Number
144805
Date Published
1993
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examines the nature, consequences, and responses to organizational crime, with particular reference to Finland.
Abstract
The author distinguishes organizational crime from white-collar crime, in that organizational crime is possible only in connection with an organization and white-collar crime is an action by an individual. The harms caused by organizational crime include financial harm (7.6 percent of the gross national product in Finland in 1978); social costs (weakening of the social order and a lowering of the quality of life); and physical harm (environmental crimes and defective products can affect the health of workers, consumers, and the general public). An examination of contemporary reactions to counter organizational crime focuses on studies of sentences given in organizational crime in Finland and other countries over the last four decades. Monetary fines were found to be the most frequent sentences, but the fines were typically only a small fraction of the financial harm caused by the organizational crime. In discussing obstacles to the control of organizational crime, the author identifies barriers in the general categories of ideological obstacles, legal obstacles, and structural obstacles. Recommendations for means to improve the control of organizational crime pertain to more severe sentences, the role of the state and public power, and change in certain legal and structural principles. Among the latter recommendations is the proposal that measures be taken to make the activities of economic enterprises and other organizations open and public. A 31- item bibliography