Corporate crime

In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes committed by either a corporation (i.e. a legal person having a separate legal personality from the natural persons that manage its activities), or by individuals acting on behalf of a corporation or other business entity (for example see vicarious liability). Corporate crimes can be seen as distinct from other workplace crimes like white-collar crime because illegalities are committed for and congruent with the goals of legitimate (i.e. registered) companies, such as price fixing or circumventing health and safety regulation.

Corporate crimes involving health and safety offences may result in nearly 3 million work-related fatalities from injuries and ill-health every year worldwide, as the International Labour Organisation estimates that 2.93 million workers die each year from work-related factors (see Occupational safety and health). Overall, however, discussions on corporate crime are not usually prominent in academic, political, or public discourse. Many academics, such as Tombs and Whyte (2007), note the relative obscurity of corporate crime in discussions concerning criminology.

Corporate crime shares similarities with:

  • white-collar crime, because the majority of individuals who may act as or represent the interests of the corporation are white-collar professionals;
  • organized crime, because criminals may set up corporations either for the purposes of crime or as vehicles for laundering the proceeds of crime. The world's gross criminal product has been estimated at 20 percent of world trade. (de Brie 2000); and
  • state-corporate crime because, in many contexts, the opportunity to commit crime emerges from the relationship between the corporation and the state.
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