welcome to this CH to you sociology topic video looking at social class and crime focusing on corporate crime one factor that impacts on the over representation of workingclass crime in crime statistics is the comparative invisibility of other forms of crime such as corporate crime corporate crime is defined as being actions or omissions on behalf of or by companies that are punishable by law however these crimes are rarely prosecuted due due to them being more difficult to detect and even when they are prosecuted they rarely carry prison sentences rather focus on financial penalties for corporations that often represent a very small fraction of their profits gained for the ACT that they have taken part in in the first place in this video we're going to examine some of the different forms of corporate crime and look at some examples one of the most eminent sociologists looking into corporate crime in the UK is Steve tombs and he outlined four main types of corporate crime firstly Financial offenses usually involving false accounting or reporting a profits which impacts on shareholders and those investing in the company secondly offenses against the consumer and this ranges from selling faulty products to misleading customers about the product they are buying a third form of corporate crime is offenses against employees and this can be breaches of health and safety law that put employees at risk or discrimination against different different groups within the workplace and a final form of corporate crime is offenses against the environment and this ties in with another specification Point green crime let's look at some of these crimes in more detail Financial offenses include illegal accounting practices by companies such as posting higher profits or manipulating share prices and these deceive both the stock market and their own investors for example Tesco declared their profit as being 250 million pounds higher than they actually were in 2014 which brought about charges for two of their directors both of whom were acquitted another form of financial offense is tax evasion and this refers to Illegal Declarations of or of earnings or emissions of earnings to evade paying tax there are many tax loopholes that companies can legally exploit but some still evade taxation by failing to declare profits that are made or receive payments for goods and services in one country that are paid into offshore bank accounts or are hidden from official accounts money laundering is another form of financial offense essentially cleaning money that has been gained in potentially criminal circumstances by passing it through the financial system and finally bribery and an example of this is paying State officials in exchange for lucrative contracts or for information or influence in the Parliamentary process an example of of this was the cash for questions scandal in the mid 1990s in the UK Parliament where prominent conservative MPS were paid to ask questions in Parliament on behalf of Harrod's owner Muhammad alfed a contemporary example of financial offenses is the Russian laundromat scandal in 2014 allegations were made that between 2010 and 2014 an estimated 20 billion to 80 billion of Russian money was passed through the UK banking system believed to be the proceeds of illegal activities mostly connected to organized crime syndicates Banks including Barkley Standard Chartered and deuts Bank cleaned money for Russian clients and this money was then passed on to High Street Banks the process also involved the maldovan court system as Banks would lend money to Shell or fake companies set up in malova the companies would default on the loans and the courts would order those companies to repay which was done in full thus legitimizing the transfer of money from Russian Banks to Western Banks this was done to circumvent money laundering regulations specifically designed to stop illegal money being processed another form of corporate crime are offenses against consumers and one way this occurs is through the sale of goods that do not meet certain standards or have detrimental effects on those using them an example of this is the availability of thalidomide in the 1950s an anti-sickness drug that caused birth defects in children born to mothers who' used it another example is illegal testing practices and product claims for example Volkswagen claimed their cars had low carbon emissions but it turned out that during testing they had modified the performance of the cars to make them appear greener than they actually were a further offense against consumers is Miss selling of products such as in the payment protection insurance Scandal of the early part of the 21st century Banks and Financial lenders would sell PPI to customers claiming it was necessary to protect them against loss of employment but in reality the policy was worthless a final offense against consumers is concealing defects from the public for example Ford Motor Company became aware of a defect in their Ford Pinto cars in the 1970s that caused the cars to burst into flames upon impact they concealed this as the cost of a full recoil of the cars was more expensive than the cost of the out of Court settlements of the victims essentially they allowed a dangerous car to be on the roads in order to maximize profit they were find in one court case the sum of $127 million in 1977 offenses against employees is another form of corporate crime for example pension scandals where employees pension contributions have not been paid by companies and these include British home stores for whom both Dominic chapel and Phil green have been implicated in defraud ing shareholders and employees over the state of BHS pensions Chapel was one of the first successful prosecutions for fraud of pension schemes in the UK in the late 1980s Robert Maxwell a media Tycoon and father is Jan Maxwell currently involved in the Epstein Scandal disappeared overboard while sailing his yacht it was later found that hundreds of millions of pounds from the mirror group's pension scheme had been used to purchase shares in the mirror group to artifici inflate the share price which led to valuing the company at a higher price other offenses against employees include discrimination in the workplace and the equality act 2010 provides nine protected characteristics that employees cannot be discriminated on the grounds of including religion gender age and sexuality amongst others yet many employees still pursue claims against employers for such behaviors with over 880,000 people filing to employment tribunals in 2015 16 other offenses such as the violation of labor laws including paying less than minimum wage and not allowing breaks have seen negative publicity for companies such as Sports Direct whose owner Mike Ashley was called to Parliament to answer questions about Labor violations and Amazon who have had negative publicity involving workplace practices and finally health and safety violations with many construction companies being in breach of these laws in the 1970s which led to Wildcat strikes and recent allegations about McDonald's not providing protective equipment for under 18s using friers and grills and the burns that they had received a final form of corporate crime is offenses against the environment and this is linked into green crime which we'll look at separately in a future video but in summary air and water pollution an example of which is the water pollution of the Niger Delta in Nigeria by shell protest against which cost nine prosecutors their lives The Dumping of hazardous waste and riotinto Mining has been implicated in dumping materials that contaminated the water supply of local farmers in Ghana and illegal manufacturing practices with Coca-Cola and India having to defend themselves against allegation of using pesticides in the cleaning of Coke bottles in India in the early 21st century Kramer and mikowski have suggested that the increased privatization of Public Services has led to the development of a new form of corporate crime what they term State corporate crime this is where private agencies commit crimes while conducting government work one example of this is the use of private security firms in the war on terror including the use of private security firm Blackwater in torture operations and in the UK grenfell a collaboration between the council and contractors which led to private contractors being given exemption from prosecution in return for testifying about the decision making process in placing flammable cladding on the tower block where 72 residents died in 2017 that concludes this T du sociology topic video on social class and crime looking at corporate crimes thanks for watching