Abstract

The article introduces and presents the contributions of this monographic issue dedicated to corporate crimes. The interest in the topic is motivated both in terms of research and recent Italian judicial events (the Eternit and ThyssenKrupp cases). The contents that follow are related to the broad category of corporate crimes, meant as results of deliberate decisions (in the sense of both actions or conscious omissions) made in order to benefit or profit from them. In particular they belong to the category of health and safety crimes: the violations of norms protecting health and safety in the work contexts, more often than not also damaging the health of people living in the areas close to the factories. The various essays try to answer some important questions: is any change taking place in the complex relationship between corporate crimes, their social perception, the victims' reactions, and the role of justice, and, if so, which is the nature of the change? To what extent are false beliefs about the true criminal nature of actions (or omissions) causing death or serious damage to people still present? Which cultural conditions are (or can be) required for a social reaction (from the public opinion, the media and the victims) to inspire and maintain an adequate institutional response? Which conditions can make it possible to investigate this type of crimes so that every criminal liability is acknowledged by the court? And finally: which are the real effects of the commitment of the courts, of the sentences themselves, of the mobilization of workers and movements of victims and many politically aware citizens and intellectuals, especially in terms of prevention or induction of structural changes from the dominant paradigm, that cause those damages and that violence?