From “We Didn’t Do It” to “We’ve Learned Our Lesson

Development of a Typology of Neutralizations of Corporate Crime

Bibliographic Data

ID6052049
AuthorsIsabel Schoultz (0000-0002-6115-1123, Lund University, corresponding author), Janne Flyghed (Stockholm University)
Year2020
Volume28
Issue4
Pages739-757
Publication date2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Criminology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1205-8629 • E-ISSN: 1572-9877
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s10612-019-09483-3
OpenAlexW2996482133
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited38

When corporations are faced with accusations of crime, they usually find it necessary to justify their actions to the public, the media and their shareholders. Corporate self-defense, aimed at protecting a corporation’s image and legitimacy, belongs to a broader category of offenders’ denials and neutralizations. The objective of this article is to compile and discuss literature that is of value for an understanding of neutralizations of corporate crime and, by means of this literature and our own empirical studies on corporate denials, to outline a typology of corporate neutralizations. The typology distinguishes between a wide variety of corporate responses to allegations of crime and exemplifies how these techniques have been used. We also discuss the function of corporate neutralization techniques and argue that corporate accounts mediate action; they influence both other actors and future corporate actions

Business · Corporate action · Corporate communication · Corporate crime · Corporate governance · Corporate security · Corporation · Criminology · Legitimacy · Political science · Public relations · Shareholder · Sociology · Stakeholder · Typology · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law · Regulation and Compliance Studies · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access