In current times, with business as the focal point of society in which economic strain is prevalent, it is important to be able to investigate the dysfunction and deviance that can arise as a result, since their effects will be felt in all aspects of modern social life. Upon this assumption, the current research investigates the influence of business crime, with a specific focus on the offences committed by businesses against their workforce over employment legislation. This research is delimited to companies of the third sector of the economy, commerce and financial services in particular. Entrepreneurship, business practice, employment legislation, the regulatory system and economic strain and crisis are all examined in order to investigate the phenomenon in Greece. The fieldwork consists of secondary statistical analysis of reports from the relevant regulatory offices and qualitative interviews with four target groups: employees who are victims of business crime at the work place, inspectors, trade union members and business managers and owners. The analysis follows a macro-meso-micro focus of analysis in order to provide a spherical illustration of all factors influencing deviance. Power imbalances within the capitalist system of production influencing social structures and imbalances in relevant relations of agency agents and the state, community and society are significant analytical elements of business deviance. Unpaid enforced overtime and illegal employment constitute the two prevailing offences and create a work environment of insecurity and informality. Structural factors like state-promoted entrepreneurship, changes in legislation, decreased collectivity and economic strain play an important role as do low reporting and conviction rates. The role of the state is a key element linking the levels of analysis and its further functions are instrumental in shaping legislation, systems of control, and perceptions of harm and impact of crime. Additionally, the state can act as a facilitator to deviance by participation in criminality for profit. The conclusions of this study can enhance an interest in business crime, modern criminological research in Greece and can additionally inform policy and practice.

This thesis is a study of the impact of place on the choices and decisions of released prisoners to desist from offending. It takes as its starting point recent research evidence that large numbers of prisoners in the US and UK are drawn from specific urban neighbourhoods to which they return after release only to reoffend and be re-imprisoned. Rather than assume there is a direct equivalence between criminal behaviour and place, it investigates how place differences interact with individual differences to determine the pathways taken by prisoners over the life course. Thus, it assesses how both structural and agentic factors affect reoffending and/or criminal desistance in the places prisoners grow up, in prison, and the places to which they return after prison. As well as criminological literature, the study draws on a wide range of social scientific materials on the importance of space, place and everyday life. Most prominently, it refers to geographical, sociological and psychological analyses which have explored the reciprocal nature of people/place relationships. In particular, the perspective within human geography that 'just as people construct places, places construct people' has informed the research design adopted for the study. This incorporates both a quantitative mapping exercise to show the geographical distribution of prisoners from Greater London and a qualitative account of the meanings, emotions and attitudes of a sample of prisoners towards the places they inhabit, and the influence these have on reoffending and/or criminal desistance. The main conclusions of the thesis are that most prisoners from Greater London are drawn from wards which are socially deprived. During childhood, a shared experience of specific places shapes criminal behaviour which is interpersonal and fundamentally experiential in nature. Then, having enjoyed the thrill and excitement of 'crime as play', persistent offenders grow up to embrace 'crime as a way of life'. Many prisoners profess an inclination to give up crime, but the different ways they respond to prison does not encourage them to 'go straight'. Although the process of criminal desistance is not dependent on moving away from local criminogenic environments, it may be constrained by social characteristics and social relations in the places most prisoners return to after release. The thesis ends by discussing the implications of this life course perspective for prisoner reintegration policy.

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