NCJ Number
223446
Journal
American Criminal Law Review Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 2008 Pages: 275-303
Date Published
2008
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This article explains the three elements required to incur corporate criminal liability and reviews the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines' mechanism for sentencing organizations.
Abstract
Under the law of corporate criminal liability, corporations are only liable for the acts of employees when employees are acting within the scope and nature of their employment; and a corporation will not be liable for its employees' acts unless the acts are designed to benefit the corporation. In order to hold a corporation liable for the acts of its employees, a court must impute the intent of the employees to the corporation. The discussion of the latter element of corporate criminal liability addresses conspiracies; mergers, dissolutions, and liability; concealing and failing to report a felony; deliberate disregard of employees' criminal activity (willful blindness doctrine); and imputing to a corporation the sum knowledge of all or some of its employees regarding the violation being charged (collective knowledge doctrine). The article's discussion of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines with reference to the sentencing of organizations first addresses the purpose and scope of the organizational guidelines. Although the U.S. Sentencing guidelines are advisory, Federal courts are still required to consult them. They operate under four general principles with respect to organizations. First, the corporation must remedy any harm caused by its offense. Second, a corporation run primarily for criminal purposes should receive fines sufficiently high to divest the business of all its assets. Third, businesses run other than for a criminal purpose should be fined according to the seriousness of their offenses and the culpability of the corporation. Fourth, corporations will be subject to probation if it will ensure compliance with sanctions or reduce the likelihood of future violations by the corporation. The article discusses the application of these guidelines' principles in detail. 212 notes