SECTION 4
So far in these lectures(讲座),we've been looking at crimes（犯罪） like robbery（抢劫） and murder（谋杀）--both from a historical viewpoint and also in contemporary society（当代社会）--and we've seen that the preoccupation（当务之急） in Western society with crime and with lawlessness（违法） is part of a long and continuous tradition（持续的传统）,rather than something which is new and unique（独特的） to modern society.
But over the past seventy years or so,there has been a massive（大量的） increase in（（使）在…增加） one type of crime,which is waht's known as（被认为是） corporate crime（法人犯罪：是指企业事业单位、国家机关、社会团体等的法定代表人、
代理人或直接责任人员，经法人决策机构授意或允许，为法人的利益实施的严重危害社会、触犯刑律、依法应当受到刑罚处罚的行为。 ）'.Corporate crime is crime which,as the
name suggests（提议）,is connected with （与…有关） companies（公司）,with business organisations（组织）.It includes（包含） illegal acts（不法行为） of either individuals（个体） or a group within（在内部） the company,but waht is important is that these acts are normally in accordance with（依照，与一致） the goals of the company--they're for the good of the company rather than the individual（个人的）.It's been defined as（解释为）,quote（引用）,'crime which is committed（承诺） for the corporate organisation'the company---'not against（反对） it',unquote（结束）. So crimes like theft by employees（员工）--things like embezzlement（挪用） or fraud（欺诈） against one's actual employer（实际雇主） are excluded（排除） according to this definition（定义）.The employees may be involved（涉及） but they're acting in the first place for the company--they may not even realise they're committing a crime（犯罪） or they may realise but they feel it's excusable（可原谅的） because it's policy（）．Or because otherwise（另外） they may lose their jobs.So here．really,we're talking about the links（链接） between power and crime Now this is one area（区域） that much less is generally（通常） known about than conventional（常见的） or traditional（惯例的） crime It has been relatively ignored（相对忽略） by the mass media（大众传媒）---for example,it tends to be（倾向于） under-reported（短报） in comparison with（与…比较） conventional crime in news broadcasts（广播）,and in crime serials（期刊） and films and so on---they very rarely（难得） deal with corporate crime.And it also tends to be ignored in academic circles（学术界） there's been far more research on conventional crime and far more data is available（有空的）. Ther are several reasons for this lack（缺乏） of interest in corporate crime,compared with（与……相比较） other types of crime.It's often very complex（复杂的）,whereas（然而） with conventional crime it's usually possible to follow what's going on without specialist（专家） knowledge.As well as this,whereas conventional crime usually has a lot of human interest,corporate crime often has much less（更不用说，不及）.The third reason,and possibly the most significant（重大的，有效的） one,is that very often the victims（受害者） are unaware（不知不觉的）--they think their misfortune（不幸） is an accident or that it's the fault（故障） of no-one in particular（特别）.They're unaware that they've been victims of a crime. So,when we look at the effects（财务） of corporate crime we may find it's very
difficult to assess（评价） the costs（损失）.But these costs can be very considerable（相当大的） in both their economic（经济上的） and social aspects（方面）. Let's look at the economic costs（经济成本） first.For example,if a company is producing fruit juice and it dilutes（稀释） its product so that it's just a little below the concentration（浓度） it should be,many millions of people may be paying a small amount（小批量） extra（额外的） for their carton（用盒包装） of orange juice.Now small amounts like this may seem insignificant（无关紧要的） for individual customers（个人客户）--too small to worry about--but for the company this deception might result in massive illegal profit（非法利润）. However,all studies of corporate crime agree that the individuals are in fact deprived （剥夺）far more money by such crime than they are by conventional crime like robbery and theft.
In addition to（除此之外） this,we have to consider（考虑） the social costs of corporate crime and these are again very difficult to assess,but they are considerable.They're important because they can undermine（破坏） the faith（信仰） of the public in the business world and also,more importantly,because the main group of people they affect are,in fact,not the richer sections（截面） of society but the poorer--so here companies are robbing the poor to benefit the rich.
There are two more points todo with corporate crime that I'd like to illustrate with（用来说明） reference to（参考） a specific event（特殊事件） which occurred（发生） several years ago.This was an explosion（爆炸） of a large oil tanker（油轮） which caused（引起） the loss（损失） of more than fifty lives of the crew（全体船员）.It was an explosion which never should have happened and a subsequent（随后的） inquiry（调查）laid（从容不迫的） the blame（责任） not on anyone who had actually been on the tanker at the time.but on the owners（业主） of the tanker They had deliberately（故意地） decided（决定） not to carry out necessary repair work（必要的维修工作） on the tanker as it was due to（由于） be sold,and it was this lack of repair work which was directly responsible for（直接负责） the explosion. Now this illustrates two points to do with corporate crime.First of all,that it does not have to be intentional（故意的）.The owners of the tanker certainly did not intend（打算） it to explode.But very serious consequences（严重后果） can result from（造成） people or organisations not considering the possible results of their actions（行动） seriously enough.The main crime here was indifference to（对…漠不关心） the human results rather than actual intention to（意图） harm anyone,but that didn't make the results any less tragic（悲剧的） And this leads（指引） me to my second point---that corporate crime can have very severe consequences.It's not just a matter of（大约） companies making bigger profits（收益） than they should do,but of event which may affect the lives of innocent（无辜的） people and yet very often companies,because they say they didn't intend to harm anyone,can avoid（避免） taking
responsibility for（负责） the results of their actions.And that has been a very dangerous loophole（漏洞） in the law.
A further example of corporate crime was...
