NCJ Number
121829
Date Published
1989
Length
344 pages
Annotation
These 17 case studies examine criminal or otherwise unlawful conduct by agencies in the Australian public sector or by officers of these organizations acting in the course of their employment and consider the causes and impacts of these actions and possible preventive or remedial responses.
Abstract
The incidents involve both criminal conduct as strictly defined as well as civil and administrative misconduct resulting from negligence or other factors. The cases were selected to exemplify illegality at the Federal, State, and local jurisdictions in a variety of agencies. They involved allegations of the use of excessive force by police and prison officers, gross waste and inefficiency in the expenditure of public funds, environmental pollution, and danger to the health and safety of public sector employees. The victims were both individuals and groups and included agency employees, clients, individual citizens, ethnic communities, taxpayers, the natural environment, and a foreign government. Each chapter includes a description of the illegal conduct and the harm, an examination of the organizational problems that may have contributed to the incident, a discussion of the detection and response to the incident, and a description of the legal outcome and the long-term consequences of the incident. The conclusion focuses on common patterns and suggests remedies to redress the problem. Index and chapter reference lists.