NCJ Number
105217
Date Published
1987
Length
271 pages
Annotation
This book probes common images of deviance, showing that large organizations are capable of deviance; describes the origins and patterns of organizational deviance; and analyzes social reactions to organizational deviance.
Abstract
Papers on the origins of corporate and governmental deviance show that corporate actors can act independent of the individual persons that compose them, discuss how organizations become deviant, develop a theory of 'white collar' crime, and examine middle management's view of corporate ethics and crime. Papers on patterns of corporate and governmental deviance analyze specific cases. These include the release of an unsafe aircraft brake by the B.F. Goodrich Company, the conspiracy to fix prices of heavy electrical equipment sold primarily to public utilities, the serious design defect of the Dalkon Shield manufactured by A.H. Robins Corporation, and the withholding of treatment for syphilis from 399 poor black men with the disease under the U.S. Public Health Service's Tuskegee experiment to determine the long-term effects of untreated syphilis. Papers on social reactions to organizational deviance examine the experiences of those who have publicly exposed wrongdoing by their organizations, the campaign against marketing dangerous infant formula in the Third World, newspaper coverage of corporate crime, and the impact of publicity on the safety problems of the Ford Pinto. Annotated bibliographies with each section of papers and references for each paper.