Safety crime

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The academic concept of safety crime was termed by Tombs and Whyte[1] in 2007 in their comprehensive analysis of the legal regulation and punishment of workplace health and safety offences. Tombs and Whyte[2] briefly define safety crime as "violations of law by employers that either do, or have the potential to, cause sudden death or injury as a result of work-related activities". Safety crime is distinct from corporate crime by its reference to injury and death from work-related activities. Considering that corporate crime can involve safety crimes and other crimes congruent with the goals of legitimate organisations, like price fixing, safety crime can be viewed as a sub-genre of corporate crime.

Definitional debate

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Since Sutherland[3] highlighted the concept of crime in business in the 1940s, crimes of this nature are usually contested and marginalised in academic, political, and public discourse. At the time, for instance, Tappan[4] disagreed with Sutherland's white-collar crime concept on the grounds that Sutherland used the criminal label before official adjudication and therefore entered a sphere of moralising that clashed with the legal system. Tappan's critique demonstrates that the term crime, which has no inherent ontology, is dictated by legal and political motives. It is this subjective nature of crime that introduces contention and barriers to universally accepted definitions - particularly for new suggestions of crime.

The 1972 North American Watergate scandal prompted a re-emergence of academic literature on business-related crime. Throughout the 1970s to 1990s a range of academics pursued white-collar crime-esque research, such as: occupational crime,[5] economic crime,[6], organized crime,[7] commercial crime,[8] crimes at the top,[9], crimes of the powerful[10] crimes in the suites,[11] elite deviance,[12] crimes of capital,[13] business crime,[14] organisational crime,[15] and corporate crime.[16] These terms are not simply semantic disputes as almost all of these concepts refer to different types of crime in the workplace. This plethora of different topics did not lead to widespread recognition or understanding, as these terms are often used interchangeably whilst referring to disparate types of crime.

Tombs and Whyte[2] use Pearce and Tombs'[17] corporate crime definition below, with the addition of "violations of law by employers that either do, or have the potential to, cause sudden death or injury as a result of work-related activities", to define safety crime:

Illegal acts or omissions, punishable by the state under administrative, civil or criminal law which are the result of deliberate decision making or culpable negligence within a legitimate formal organisation. These acts or omissions are based in legitimate, formal, business organisations, made in accordance with the normative goals, standard operating procedures, and/or cultural norms of the organisation, and are intended to benefit the corporation itself.

By referring to sudden death or injury, this safety crime definition excludes health and safety offences that cause pernicious harms from illnesses and diseases. This is the intention of Tombs and Whyte as they separate occupational injury offences from occupational health offences, since the latter typically involve a more complex contestable causal chain and thus greater difficulty in identifying the burden of proof.

Tombs and Whyte's introduction of the safety crime term has not achieved widespread recognition in academic, political, or public discourse. The term safety crime has only been used by Alvesalo and Whyte[18], Tombs and Whyte,[1] and Alvesalo et al.[19] When studies refer to workplace health and safety offences, they are more likely to use the term corporate crime and thereby also inadvertently refer to financial crime, state crime, or environmental crime. Overall, academics agree that the study of safety crime continues to be marginalised in the United Kingdom and most criminal justice systems.[1][20][21]

Safety crime injury statistics

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In 2023 the International Labour Organisation[22] estimated that every year 2.93 million workers die as a result of work-related factors, alongside 395 million non-fatal workplace injuries, and $361 billion in costs from injuries and excessive heat in the workplace. In 2017 Hämäläinen[23] noted that most work-related deaths occur in Asia, which had 12.99 fatalities per 100,000 persons employed, followed by America and Europe with fatality rates of 5.12 and 3.02 respectively per 100,000 persons employed (see Occupational safety and health for further information on global occupational injury statistics).

Great Britain/United Kingdom

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In Great Britain the Health and Safety Executive reported that in 2024–25 124 employees and 92 members of the public died from work-related incidents.[24] The Health and Safety Executive also recorded that in 2023/24 there were:[25]

  • 1.7 million working people suffering from a work-related illness, of which
    • 776,000 workers suffering work-related stress, depression or anxiety
    • 543,000 workers suffering from a work-related musculoskeletal disorder
  • 2,218 mesothelioma deaths due to past asbestos exposures
  • 61,663 injuries to employees reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations
  • 33.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
  • £21.6 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions in 2022/23

Similar but technically distinct from safety crime, in 2022 the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities[26] stated that there are between 28,000 and 36,000 annual mortalities from human-made air pollution in the United Kingdom.

In contrast to Health and Safety Executive statistics, the Labour Force Survey estimates significantly higher quantities of non-fatal injuries. In 2023/24 the Labour Force Survey[27] reported 604,000 workplace non-fatal injuries, nearly 10 times as many injuries reported by the Health and Safety Executive. Furthermore, it is commonly accepted amongst safety crime academics that the Health and Safety Executive significantly underreports safety crime and 'omits vast swathes of fatal injuries'.[28] According to Tombs and Whyte[1][29][30] there are at least 900 safety crime deaths each year in Great Britain, this being six times larger than the Health and Safety Executive's headline fatality figure. Tombs[28] notes that the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 legislation allows the Health and Safety Executive to exclude certain categories of workplace deaths. This includes deaths from sea fishing and merchant vessels, deaths traveling by air or sea, and most significant, deaths involving a moving vehicle on a public road (other than vehicles involved in loading and unloading operations, working alongside the road such as road maintenance, escapes of substances from vehicles, and incidents involving trains).[31] In 2003 the Health and Safety Executive[32] estimated that a third of all road traffic incidents in Britain are work-related, resulting in approximately 1,000 occupational road fatalities each year. More recently in 2024 The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents[33] corroborated the Health and Safety Executive's suggestion that one third of all road traffic fatalities are work-related, resulting in approximately 500 deaths each year.

Safety crime obscurity

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The underreporting of safety crime can be ascribed to various obstacles of identifying and convicting those responsible for safety crime. Issues of criminalising the powerful, namely resourceful corporations or high status individuals, are well documented.[34][35][36] Tombs and Whyte[1] argue that the following issues cause safety crime to be marginalised and obscured in society:

  • the safety crime subject fails to attract mainstream academic, political, or public attention. This can broadly be ascribed to the politics of crime, law and order.[37] [38]
  • the way in which many safety crimes are represented as accidents or non-work related deaths rather than crimes of violence.
  • legal difficulties of identifying, regulating and convicting those responsible for safety crime.

Many safety crime academics agree that safety crimes are obscured and marginalised in the UK and most societies,[16][20][35] termed a ‘collective ignorance’ by Box.[39] The Parliamentary health and safety report,[40] which significantly influenced the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, acknowledged the issue of safety crime underreporting. In 2007 the Health and Safety Executive[41] estimated that employers recorded 30% of employee injuries, rising to 50% of non-fatal injuries in 2024.[42]

See also

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References

  1. ^ a b c d e Tombs, Steve; Whyte, David (2007). Safety crimes. Crime and society series. Cullompton: Willan. ISBN 978-1-84392-086-1.
  2. ^ a b Tombs, Steve; Whyte, David (2007). Safety crimes. Crime and society series. Cullompton: Willan. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-84392-086-1.
  3. ^ Sutherland, Edwin (1940). "White-Collar Criminality". American Sociological Review. 5 (1): 1–12. doi:10.2307/2083937. JSTOR 2083937.
  4. ^ Tappan, Paul (1947). "Who is the Criminal?". American Sociological Review. 12 (6): 96–102. doi:10.2307/2086496. JSTOR 2086496.
  5. ^ Green, Gary S. (1990). Occupational crime. Nelson-Hall series in law, crime, and justice. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. ISBN 978-0-8304-1196-2.
  6. ^ Edelhertz, Herbert (1970). The Nature, Impact and Prosecution of White-Collar Crime. Washington DC: National Institute for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Department of Justice.
  7. ^ Ruggiero, Vincenzo (1996). Organized and corporate crime in Europe: offers that can't be refused. Socio-legal studies series. Aldershot Brookfield (Vt.) Singapore [etc.]: Dartmouth. ISBN 978-1-85521-522-1.
  8. ^ Snider, Laureen (1992). "Commercial Crime". In Sacco, Vincent (ed.). Deviance, Conformity and Control in Canadian Society. Toronto: Prentice Hall. pp. 313–364.
  9. ^ Johnson, John; Douglas, Jack (1978). Crime at the Top: Deviance in Business and the Professions. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
  10. ^ Pearce, Frank (1976). Crimes of the powerful: Marxism, crime, and deviance. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-904383-05-8.
  11. ^ Timmer, Doug A.; Eitzen, D. Stanley (1989). Crime in the streets and crime in the suites: perspectives on crime and criminal justice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 978-0-205-11977-6.
  12. ^ Simon, David R.; Eitzen, D. Stanley (1982). Elite deviance. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 978-0-205-07553-9.
  13. ^ Michalowski, Raymond J. (1985). Order, law, and crime: an introduction to criminology (1st ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-33431-8.
  14. ^ Clarke, Michael (1990). Business crime: its nature and control. London: Polity Pr. ISBN 978-0-7456-0662-0.
  15. ^ Punch, Maurice (1996). Dirty business: exploring corporate misconduct: analysis and cases. London; Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-0-8039-7603-0.
  16. ^ a b Pearce, Frank; Tombs, Steve (2019). Toxic Capitalism: Corporate Crime and the Chemical Industry. Routledge Revivals Ser. Milton: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-13425-9.
  17. ^ Pearce, Frank; Tombs, Steve (2019). Toxic Capitalism: Corporate Crime and the Chemical Industry. Routledge Revivals Ser. Milton: Routledge. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-367-13425-9.
  18. ^ Alvesalo, Anne; Whyte, Dave (2007-11-14). "Eyes wide shut: the police investigation of safety crimes". Crime, Law and Social Change. 48 (1–2): 57–72. doi:10.1007/s10611-007-9082-4. ISSN 0925-4994.
  19. ^ Alvesalo-Kuusi, Anne; Bittle, Steven; Lähteenmäki, Liisa (2018-07-03). "Repositioning the corporate criminal: comparing and contrasting corporate criminal liability in Canada and Finland". International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice. 42 (2–3): 215–231. doi:10.1080/01924036.2017.1295396. ISSN 0192-4036.
  20. ^ a b Gobert, James J.; Punch, Maurice (2003). Rethinking corporate crime. Law in context. London: Butterworths LexisNexis. ISBN 978-0-406-95006-2.
  21. ^ Tombs, Steve; Whyte, David. "Worker health and safety". Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Criminology. 1 (1): 1–27.
  22. ^ "Safety at health at work". International Labour Organization. 28 January 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  23. ^ Hämäläinen, Päivi; Takala, Jukka; Saarela, Kaija Leena (February 2006). "Global estimates of occupational accidents". Safety Science. 44 (2): 137–156. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2005.08.017.
  24. ^ "Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2025" (PDF). Health and Safety Executive. 17 September 2025.
  25. ^ "Key figures for Great Britain (2023/24)". Health and Safety Executive. 17 September 2025. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  26. ^ "Air pollution: applying All Our Health". Office for Health Improvement & Disparities. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  27. ^ "LFS - Labour Force Survey - Self-reported work-related ill health and workplace injuries: Index of LFS tables". Health and Safety Executive. November 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  28. ^ a b Tombs, Steve (2016). "What to do with the harmful corporation?" (PDF). Power and Resistance. 1 (1): 193–216.
  29. ^ Tombs, Steve; Whyte, David (2017). "Worker health and safety". Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Criminology. 1 (1): 1–27.
  30. ^ Tombs, Steve; Whyte, David (2020). "The Shifting Imaginaries of Corporate Crime". Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime. 1 (1): 16–23. doi:10.1177/2631309X19882641.
  31. ^ "Exemptions". Health and Safety Executive. 2025. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  32. ^ "Driving at Work, managing work-related road safety" (PDF). Ringwaytraining. Health and Safety Executive. September 2003. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  33. ^ "Safer Lives, Stronge Nation: Our Call for a National Accident Prevention Strategy". Flipsnack. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  34. ^ Box, Steven (2002). Power, Crime and Mystification. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0-203-40775-2.
  35. ^ a b Slapper, Gary; Tombs, Steve (1999). Corporate crime. Longman criminology series. Harlow: Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-29980-1.
  36. ^ Tombs, Steve; Whyte, David, eds. (2003). Unmasking the Crimes of the Powerful: Scrutinizing States and Corporations (1st, New ed.). New York: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8204-5691-1.
  37. ^ Brake, Michael; Hale, Chris (2013). Public order and private lives: the politics of law and order. Routledge revivals ([Nachdr. d. Ausg.] London, Routledge, 1982 ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-52142-7.
  38. ^ Maguire, Mike; Morgan, Rodney; Reiner, Robert, eds. (2002). The Oxford handbook of criminology (3. ed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-19-924937-4.
  39. ^ Box, Steven (2002). Power, Crime and Mystification. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-203-40775-2.
  40. ^ Robens, Lord (1972). "Safety and Health at Work, Report of the Committee 1970-72" (PDF). mineaccidents.com.au. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  41. ^ Health and Safety Executive (2007). "An investigation of reporting of workplace accidents under RIDDOR using the Merseyside Accident Information Model" (PDF). bipsolutions.com. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
  42. ^ Health and Safety Executive (20 October 2024). "Kind of accident statistics in Great Britain, 2024" (PDF). hse.gov.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2025.