Frank Pearce was the first scholar to use the term 'crimes of the powerful.' His ground-breaking book of the same name provided insightful critiques of liberal orthodox criminology, particularly in relation to labelling theory and symbolic interactionism, while making important contributions to Marxist understandings of the complex relations between crime, law and the state in the reproduction of the capitalist social order. Historically, crimes of the powerful were largely neglected in crime and deviance studies, but there is now an important and growing body of work addressing this gap. This book brings together leading international scholars to discuss the legacy of Frank Pearce's book and his work in this area, demonstrating the invaluable contributions a critical Marxist framework brings to studies of corporate and state crimes, nationally, internationally and on a global scale. This book is neither a hagiography, nor a review of random areas of social scientific interest. Instead, it draws together a collection of scholarly and original articles which draw upon and critically interrogate the continued significance of the approach pioneered in Crimes of the Powerful. The book traces the evolution of crimes of the powerful empirically and theoretically since 1976, shows how critical scholars have integrated new theoretical insights derived from post-structuralism, feminism and critical race studies and offers perspectives on how the crimes of the powerful - and the enormous, ongoing destruction they cause - can be addressed and resisted.

Frank Pearce was the first scholar to use the term 'crimes of the powerful.' His ground-breaking book of the same name provided insightful critiques of liberal orthodox criminology, particularly in relation to labelling theory and symbolic interactionism, while making important contributions to Marxist understandings of the complex relations between crime, law and the state in the reproduction of the capitalist social order. Historically, crimes of the powerful were largely neglected in crime and deviance studies, but there is now an important and growing body of work addressing this gap. This book brings together leading international scholars to discuss the legacy of Frank Pearce's book and his work in this area, demonstrating the invaluable contributions a critical Marxist framework brings to studies of corporate and state crimes, nationally, internationally and on a global scale. This book is neither a hagiography, nor a review of random areas of social scientific interest. Instead, it draws together a collection of scholarly and original articles which draw upon and critically interrogate the continued significance of the approach pioneered in Crimes of the Powerful. The book traces the evolution of crimes of the powerful empirically and theoretically since 1976, shows how critical scholars have integrated new theoretical insights derived from post-structuralism, feminism and critical race studies and offers perspectives on how the crimes of the powerful - and the enormous, ongoing destruction they cause - can be addressed and resisted.

In 1992, an underground explosion at the Westray Mine in Plymouth,
Nova Scotia, killed twenty-six miners. Although the owners of the mine
were charged criminally, no one was convicted, largely because it was
deemed too difficult to determine legal responsibility.
More than a decade after the Westray disaster, the federal
government introduced revisions to the "Criminal Code" aimed at
strengthening corporate criminal liability. Bill C-45, dubbed the
Westray bill, requires employers to ensure a safe workplace and
attributes criminal liability to organizations for seriously injuring
or killing workers and/or the public. Yet, while the federal government
declared the Westray bill an important step, the law has thus far
failed to produce a crackdown on corporate crime.
In "Still Dying for a Living, " Steven Bittle turns a critical
eye on Canada's corporate criminal liability law. Drawing
theoretical inspiration from Foucauldian and neo-Marxist literatures
and interweaving in-depth interviews and parliamentary transcripts,
Bittle reveals how legal, economic, and cultural discourses surrounding
the Westray bill downplayed the seriousness of workplace injury and
death, effectively characterizing these crimes as regrettable but
largely unavoidable accidents. As long as the primary causes of
workplace injury and death are not properly scrutinized, Bittle argues,
workers will continue to die in the pursuit of earning a living.Steven Bittle is an assistant professor in the
Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.

In 1992 a preventable explosion at the Westray Mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, killed twenty-six miners. More than a decade later, the government enacted Bill C-45, commonly known as the Westray bill, to hold organizations criminally liable for seriously injuring and killing workers and the public. In Still Dying for a Living, Steven Bittle turns a critical eye on the Westray bill, revealing how legal, economic, and cultural discourses surrounding the bill downplayed the seriousness of workplace injury and death, effectively characterizing these crimes as regrettable but largely unavoidable accidents and, in the process, obscuring their underlying causes.