Re-Imagining Crime Prevention: Controlling Corporate Crime?

• NCJ Number: 216218
• Journal: Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Dated: 2006 Pages: 1-25
• Author(s): Anne Alvesalo; Steve Tombs; Erja Virta; Dave Whyte
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 25 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

After considering how current crime-prevention theory and practice can be applied to corporate crime, this article examines recent developments in the implementation of corporate-crime prevention in Finland.

Abstract

Noting that "situational crime prevention" has dominated the theory and practice of crime prevention in contemporary liberal democracies, the authors discuss the application of routine activities theory--the conceptual foundation for situational crime prevention--to corporate crime. Routine activities theory focuses on three features of a crime: a likely offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian. The authors discuss how corporate crime can be addressed under these features of situational crime prevention. This is followed by an overview of the events that led the Finnish Government to take action against economic crime in 1996. Laws were reformed or newly enacted to counter securities crime, money laundering, tax evasion, and various types of fraud. Also, the organization of police investigations of economic crime has been reformed, and the number of investigators has increased significantly. Perhaps the most significant trend, however, is a change in the national mindset, both by the public and politicians, in viewing corporate crime as "real" crime. Based on current crime prevention theory and the effectiveness of Finland's actions to prevent economic crime, the authors offer three recommendations. First, reorient crime prevention partnerships to include regulatory agencies, work organizations, consumer groups, and environmental pressure groups. Second, develop new forms of surveillance from the grassroots, since the involvement of workers, social movements, and other organized interests can be "capable guardians" against corporate crime. Third, available data on corporate crime should be publicized as widely as possible by local crime prevention agents as a means of raising awareness of the risks of victimization and rallying public support for the control of corporate crime. 62 notes