NCJ Number
84127
Date Published
1980
Length
14 pages
Annotation
From 1939 to 1975, economic expansion in Spain was accompanied by business abuses, many with criminal intent, and business crime has benefited from excessively lenient penal treatment.
Abstract
Business crime in Spain has included stock and real estate swindles, the destruction of urban environments by speculative building, adulteration of food products, the illegal transfer of capital abroad, the formation of commercial law companies for the purpose of tax evasion, and fraudulent or culpable bankruptcies. The criminal justice system has treated business crime leniently largely because of the inhibition of the judiciary, which found itself faced with legislation that was contradictory and difficult to apply, and the civil service, which has power to apply sanctions but has not done so because of links to the interests of certain financial groups. Censorship and restriction on citizen liberties have made the population powerless to counter business crime. Some changes in the situation from November 1975 to December 1977 promise some improvement in dealing with business crime. Changes have included modification of the law bearing upon tax evasion, the establishment of the National Court, and the introduction of nonjudicial controls. Significant change can be expected to occur, however, only in the context of progress toward democratic principles that give greater power to citizens to influence official response to crime committed by influential persons and institutions. A total of 27 notes are listed.