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 personal disputes) and public offences that offend a broader

set of social norms or values.”1

In truth, we do not regard ourselves as criminals whenever we pay a fine but that is

exactly what we are; paying a fine proves that we committed an offence in the public sphere

“breaking prohibitory rules or laws, to which legitimate punishments or sanctions are

attached, and which requires the intervention of a public authority”.

We often do not often consider ourselves as criminals because we implicitly use a

sociological definition that takes into account the levels of harm we cause and the interests

that need to be protected.