Two sociological endeavours have been combined in this study of white-collar crime: 1. The presentation of the natural history pertaining to the enactment of British food and drug adulteration prevention legislation, involving the definition of the problem, the agitation for amelioration of it, policy determination and reform; and 2. the construction of a substantive theory of criminalisation based on the, case study data. In order to accomplish the latter, the collection of the data ha~( been informed by a combined conflict~interactionist perspective. A processual model has been developed which embodies the concerns of social structure and the interactive patterns as they pertain to law-making, law-breaking, law-enforcing, law-confirming and public opinion. The food and drug laws were selected because they were deemed representative of the embodiment of strict liability in public welfare legislation, a focal concept of this study. The antecedents to a legislative cycle, as well as the intended and unintended consequences of legislative and judicial decisions, have been incorporated in the interpretative case study and the theory of criminalisation. Both aspects of the study have been ordered under the aegis of the model. Four major legislative cycles between 1850 and 1900 have demonstrated the conflict-antagonistic cooperation-accommodation processes accompanying the resolution of conflicts in an area of status politics between lawmakers, law-breakers and law-enforcers. Strict liability rather than disrupt the accommodation patterns has stabilised them, r4s contributed to a real diminishing of serious law-breaking, and has provided a barrier to stigmatisation ~. criminalisation. Public welfare legislation embodying strict liability exhibits its own typical features. These have been exposed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:526922 |
| Date | January 1973 |
| Creators | Paulus, I. L. E. |
| Publisher | London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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