SOC 3490 Chapter 9: Glasbeek – "It's Not a Crime:" Reclassifying Corporate Deviance
Document Summary
Major shareholders and managers who are responsible for corporate crime are generally considered to be elites of society. Corporate deviance has been redefined as a means of diverting the stigma that would otherwise be associated to someone who commits such heinous crimes. Stems from the legal treatment of a corporation as a person. System of law that protects corporations because they make capitalism possible, therefore corporations are ruled by regulatory laws and not criminal law. Corporation: aggregation of once separate capitals, assets, investors (equity and credit suppliers), managers, and workers. The law allows the corporation to be viewed as an individual so that it can buy property, be loaned money, etc. However, as an individual, corporations are not subject to criminal law. Workers simply do what they are told to by their boss: when corporations come together and form an umbrella corporation, it is even more difficult to pinpoint the accused actors and hold someone responsible.