Regulatory crime

In examining the contours of criminal law and its application, most lawyers and criminologists are drawn to traditional ‘real crime’ (homicides, violent assaults, organised crime, sexual offences, requirements of mens rea and actus reus, and general defences) whilst ignoring white collar offences which are often enforced by specialist agencies. As a society we have tended to be preoccupied with the ‘punitive regulation of the poor’, a project closely tied to a police-prisons way of knowing that focuses on ‘crime in the streets’ rather than ‘crime in the suites’ (see J Braithwaite (2003) and ‘What’s Wrong with the Sociology of Punishment’ 7(1) Theo. Crim. 5-28 at 7). The narrow exclusivity of this approach is a mistake, not least because criminalisation is now more than ever viewed as a panacea for almost any social problem. More and more Irish society is witnessing the increasing and extensive use of regulatory strategies by the Irish state. In areas such as competition law, environmental protection, health and safety law, and consumer and corporate affairs, there has been a move towards using criminalisation as the last-resort strategy when compliance through negotiation and monitoring has failed.