Are Rule Violating Corporations Specialist or Generalist Perpetrators? A Quantitative Exploration Based on Regulatory Inspection Data

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Kluin, Marieke H. A.; Blokland, Arjan A. J.; Huisman, Wim
• 署名单位: Leiden University; Leiden University - Excl LUMC; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• 刊物名称: REGULATION & GOVERNANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1748-5983; 1748-5991
• DOI: 10.1111/rego.70112
• 发表日期: 2025-12-19
• 关键词: corporate crime; crime mix; diversity index; latent class analysis; specialization; DUTCH CHEMICAL-INDUSTRY; CRIMINAL CAREER; Life-course; INDIVIDUAL SPECIALIZATION; crime; safety; ORGANIZATIONS; criminology; BEHAVIOR; VIOLENCE

摘要

The present study examines diversity in corporate offending. Corporations can be diverse or rather specialized in their pattern of rule violating behavior. Offending diversity (or crime mix) constitutes an important dimension of the criminal career and different theories of offending lead to different predictions with regard to the extent of offending diversity expected. Though a bourgeoning literature has begun to view corporate offending through a criminal career lens, extant studies tend to focus on the frequency of corporate offending, rather than on corporate crime mix. Here, we examine corporate crime mix using regulatory inspection data on 567 Dutch corporations subject to the Seveso-III Directive pertaining to occupational safety, external safety and disaster control for companies handling large amounts of hazardous materials. Seveso corporations show high levels of offending diversity. Latent class analysis reveals three distinct patterns of corporate offending driven by the frequency of inspection and offending, rather than by clustering of offenses within corporate criminal careers. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.