Summary of
Reiman's argument about harms that are analogous to crimes
|
| A. Intent: The behavior of
executives does not fall into the category of premeditated murder, but
many actions are done with knowledge of, or reckless disregard for, the
harms that might happen. Even in cases where the executives acted
negligently, Reiman feels the act still falls within the scope of the
criminal law and rather than a regulatory offense.
B. Face to face
crime might be worse because it inflicts more terror, but the basic
issue is the injury done – for example that someone died. There is a
difference between the way the two harms are inflicted, but not enough to
make one a felony and the other a regulatory offense.
C. Legitimate productive activity: Some risks
are inherent in legitimate productive activity, but society can protect
people from unnecessary or excessive risk; it can protect workers from
being beaten to make them work faster and it can protect children from
exploitation involved in 'legitimate productive activity'. An executive
who ignores these laws set up to protect innocent people commits a crime,
even if he is engaged in legitimate productive activity.
D. Free Consent: Many people do not know
about the hazards in a workplace to freely consent to the dangers. There
is also not equal power to negotiate, so the ‘free’ consent is
problematic. The job market has barriers, glass ceilings and In some
places there are few employment opportunities, further escalating the
coercion to take a job. |
|
More Tobacco News & Links
As Congress prepares to debate campaign finance reform, tobacco policy presents one of the clearest examples of how campaign contributions have distorted the political process to protect special interests rather than the public
interest. (Common Cause)
Bush Administration Tobacco Industry Ties
(Corp Watch)
Kessler: Break Up Tobacco Industry
: former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler says "No more Marlboro Man, no successors to Joe Camel, no more colorful
packaging. Dismantling is the only appropriate way to handle an industry that has engaged in the greatest of conspiracies and, in the process, knowingly put the nation's health at risk."
Presidential
Budget May End US Tobacco Suit
Tobacco Industry Wins Ad Victory
The Supreme Court handed the tobacco industry a major victory over state efforts to restrict tobacco advertising, striking down Massachusetts regulations that
would have banned such advertising near playgrounds and schools.
EU Accuses U.S. Tobacco Companies of Trading With Iraq, Terrorists
(Center for Public Integrity): American tobacco companies have violated sanctions against Iraq for years by sending billions of cigarettes into the country, often with the aid of a terrorist
organization, the European Union has alleged. The allegations, made in recent filings in U.S. District Court in New York, were the latest salvos in a civil racketeering lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris by the European Community and 10 member nations. The
suit accused tobacco companies of running a global and decades-long cigarette smuggling operation that robbed national treasuries of
billions of dollars in tax revenue and became a money-laundering vehicle for criminal organizations.
U.S. Seeks to Alter Anti-Tobacco Treaty:
'Reservations' Clause Sought as Way Out of Some Provisions (Washington Post)
The United States told the World Health Organization this week that it is unlikely to sign the first treaty to curtail tobacco use worldwide unless the 171 nations that hammered out its language agree to a clause that would allow governments to opt out of any provision they find objectionable.
The Bush administration says it needs the "reservations" clause to ensure that the United States could disregard treaty requirements it considered constitutionally questionable. But anti-tobacco activists and foreign diplomats say the demand is an attempt to water down the treaty to benefit tobacco companies or to unravel the agreement entirely.
More Information on Corporate
Harm and Elite Deviance
It was probably inevitable that one day people would start suing McDonald's for making them fat. That day came this summer, when New York lawyer Samuel Hirsch filed several lawsuits against McDonald's, as well as four other fast-food companies, on the grounds that they had failed to adequately disclose the bad health effects of their menus. One of the suits involves a Bronx teenager who tips the scale at 400 pounds and whose mother, in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said, "I always believed McDonald's food was healthy for my son."
from Portion Distortion -- You Don't Know the Half of It
(Washington Post)
Wall Street Sees Chance To Put Off Reforms: Pitt's Departure, GOP Win Prompt Go-Slow Sentiment
(Washington Post 11/8/02)
Washington Awash in Talk of Money:
The sweet smell of cash wafts across just about everything that happens in Beltway land. Politicians constantly worry about raising it and taking care of those who
provide it, even as they publicly pledge to clean up the system (Washington
Post)
