Historically, the federal government assumed primary responsibility for controlling corporate crime. In the past two decades corporate crime raised special problems for detection, prosecution, and sanction. State and local prosecutors became increasingly concerned about corporate crime and were encouraged to enforce laws prohibiting corporate crimes. Initially, state and local enforcement mechanisms focused on the prevention of economic crimes, such as consumer fraud.
Now, state and local prosecutions focus on a wider variety of cases, including occupational safety violations and the illegal dumping of toxic waste. In nearly every state prosecutor have sought criminal indictments against corporations, partnerships, and other business entities for noneconomic offenses.
These crimes are discovered by local prosecutors through a variety of official and unofficial sources. Most often cases come to the attention of prosecutors after complaints by business and citizen victims. The second most common source is local law enforcement -- the local police, state police, and state regulatory agencies.
These sources disclosed information about nine separate types of corporate crime. As shown in below Table, in 1998 two-thirds of the Justice Department survey respondents said their offices prosecuted at least one of these types of corporate crimes.
Economic crimes made up the larger part of the corporate crime caseload although a wide variety of corporate crimes were handled by local prosecutors. Consumer fraud was the most frequently prosecuted corporate crime with 41 percent of the offices prosecuting at least one case of consumer fraud. False claims and insurance fraud were the next two most frequently prosecuted economic crimes with a 31 percent response, and environmental crime was the most frequently prosecuted noneconomic crime, also with a 31 percent response.
Percentage of Offices Prosecuting Selected Corporate Crimes in 1998.......
