The Impact of Crimes of the Powerful and How Our Own Choices Facilitate These Harms and Crimes
As categorically contextualized by some philosophers, if you want to know a man’s character, give him power. Crimes of the powerful incorporate corporations, states, international financial institutions, power, organized crime networks, and the elite and even individuals. The influential persons and bodies are of great significance to themselves, society, nation, and the entire globe. However, just as the power aids vitally in executing essential services and programs, it can be adversely abused by the possessors beyond boundaries to resulting in significant harm like but not limited to massive death, inflation, and fluctuation of economy. This article comprehensively put my voice on powerful crimes’ impact and how our own choices facilitate these harms and crimes-key information to students, community, and activist groups, among others.
Research reveals that the financial costs of the crime of the powerful greatly exceed those of traditional crimes. The investigation conducted by the Federal bureau found that conventional crimes like murder, robbery, and burglary are approximated to $30 billion; however, on the contrary, the losses from occupational fraud, a small fraction of white-collar crime, is hundreds of billions in each year, (Rothe and Kauzlarich 2016). Also, I went ahead and analyzed the financial fraud contacted by Enron Corporation, and the sources revealed that it cost the investors and employees $25–50 billion.
Rothe and Kauzlarich (2016) posit that there is an adverse impact on health and personal safety resulting from powerful crimes. When going through their article, I confirmed from the authors that the physicians who undertake unnecessary surgical operations expose their clients to more risk of health complications. Similarly, the pharmaceutical industries intending to fix high prices threaten the living standards and the well-being of those in need of the product. Still, they lack the financial capability to get them. I also noted that business organizations that either sell or manufacture contaminated food risk their customers’ health.
Last but not least, there is a negative impact on institutions and moral climate. Crimes relating to fraud, bribery, price-fixing, deception, and price-fixing undermine the principles of honesty and fair play. I strongly concur with the author more so if the victims are vague entities like the public, government, or corporation. In my opinion, the crime can result in erosion of the institution’s political and economic image.
On the contrary, it has been confirmed that some of the crimes and harms result of our own choices (Barak 2017). Occupational and organizational crimes on white-collar crimes explain well how the individual employees lead to the powerful’s adverse crimes. Rothe & Kauzlarich (2016) elaborates that occupational crimes are committed by an employee for personal benefits like a banker stealing $100, 000 while the corporate crime is a crime done by persons in their occupational offices benefit the interest of the organization. A good example of organizational crime is cooking the audit books to increate value and stock. In both cases prescribed above, the harm is due to the irrational choices undertaken by the individual employees. I believe that if an employee exercises maximum professional ethics, be faithful to their work and God-fearing, and be content with the work and pay, such crimes can be significantly reduced if not completely abolished.
According to Rothe & Kauzlarich (2016), another potential impact of powerful crimes is the marginalized group’s failure to enjoy their rights. The crimes are commonly caused by states with their collaboration with other corporate. The state facilitates the creation of laws that promotes wrongdoings. A good illustration is the infamous savings and loan debacles in the US, and that the regulatory and advertisement agency can decline to make appointment-for instance, OSHA failed to provide remedies for the for safety violations on the above-analyzed case of the Imperial Chicken Plant in Hamlet northern part of Califonia, (León, 2020). I also confirmed that NHTSA’s declined to investigate tire malfunctions and roll-regarding the scenarios on Ford Explorers.
Besides, the wrong choices of failing to initiate and implement protective measures lead to powerful crimes. Regarding the cases of the explosion discussed of shuttle Challenger and that of the Imperial Food Products chicken processing company, the death resulted from locking the employees inside the work in an attempt to prevent theft of the companies’ products. I realized that if the doors were open, it would reduce the two companies’ death and damage impact since some workers could seek to refuse outside the burning premises.
To sum up, the crime of the power ranges from the state, corporation, white-collar, international financial institutions, organized crime networks, the elite, and even individuals. The crimes harm both the initiating bodies and the whole process’s victims. To the institutions, the image and the brand are bruised, leading to a lack of trust in the entire public and globally. On the other hand, fraud customers incur health risk effects over the consumption of compromised goods. Lastly, one of the most significant impacts underlies the financial cost that even currently exceeds traditional crimes (Comack, 2018). The unfortunate part is that some of us contribute significantly to such crimes of the powerful.
References
Barak, G. (2017). Unchecked corporate power: Why multinational corporations’ crimes are routinized away and what we can do about it (Vol. 1). Taylor & Francis.
Comack, E. (2018). Corporate Colonialism and the “Crimes of the Powerful” Committed Against the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10612-018-9414-y
León, K. S. (2020). Corrupt Capital: Alcohol, Nightlife, and Crimes of the Powerful. Routledge.
Rothe, D., & Kauzlarich, D. (2016). Crimes of the Powerful: An introduction. Routledge.