Crime
When speeding on the highway or receiving a parking ticket, do you feel you have committed a crime? Do directors and senior managers of companies consider they are criminals if their companies pay fines; or do they regard it as “the cost of doing business”, justified by their alleged duty to maximize shareholder value? Do organizations and the individuals that comprise them that pay fines feel they have committed crimes? The honest answer is “No”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “crime” as “‘An action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law’. ... As the Oxford English Dictionary definition makes clear, the law ultimately defines what is and is not crime. While popular definitions approach the law as a given, sociological definitions approach the issue in a more social way – drawing attention not only to the act itself but the law itself and whose interests it seeks to protect. It makes a distinction between private offences (such as arguments or per...