There have been a number of great books on corporate crime over the years.
From path breaking classics — Corporate Crime by Marshall Clinard and Peter Yeager (Free Press, 1980) and Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry by John Braithwaite (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984) — to modern eye openers — Too Big to Jail by Brandon Garrett Harvard University Press, 2014) and The Divide by Matt Taibbi (Spiegel & Grau, 2014).
Perhaps one of the best of recent years is Rena Steinzor’s Why Not Jail? Industrial Catastrophes, Corporate Malfeasance, and Government Inaction (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
On Monday July 20, Public Citizen will host an in-depth panel discussion about Why Not Jail?
Steinzor is a University of Maryland law professor and immediate past president of the Center for Progressive Reform.
In the book, Steinzor explores how U.S. attorneys in five states have obtained indictments against individual corporate executives in cases where corporate malfeasance killed or injured workers, harmed consumers or damaged the environment.
The cases include the contamination of drinking water in West Virginia; the Massey Energy mine explosion, the shipment of tainted steroid injections by a small compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts, the contamination of cantaloupe and peanut paste, and the infamous BP Macondo well blowout that killed 11 workers and led to environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Joining Steinzor on the panel to discuss the book will be Public Citizen President Robert Weissman and Corporate Crime Reporter editor Russell Mokhiber.
The panel will explore the reasoning behind the decision to prosecute these cases, the lethargy of the federal government in pursuing corporate crime cases and the use of deferred prosecution agreements.
The event is sponsored by Public Citizen, the Center for Progressive Reform and the Bauman Foundation.
The event will take place on Monday July 20 between 4 pm and 5:30 p.m. at Public Citizen, 1600 20th St. NW, Washington, D.C. (at the northwest corner of 20th and Q Sts., NW).