FACING
THE FIST
CORPORATE VIOLENCE
"Any system that values profit over human life is a very dangerous one indeed. Simply put, it lacks values, and such a system will eventually collapse once its true light is discovered by the masses. Though some say that capitalism is a modern system, corruption has been the source for the demise of every great civilization"
-Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun
What is Corporate Violence?
Sometimes companies abuse their power by making decisions that actually harm people or the planet in order to make profit. This is called corporate violence. This type of violence costs the federal government more than $500 billion annually, injures and kills millions of people, and destroys the planet.
Corporate crime is hard to spot because the evidence isn’t as clear as a robbery would be, for example. Detecting the crime is the first step while the next is prosecuting, which is another struggle. Even if we know a crime is committed, finding enough evidence to prove guilt is a constant challenge. On top of that, the judicial system doesn’t always play fair. For example, Brock Turner was caught sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and received a punishment of just 3 months in jail.
Many companies face fines that are mere slaps on the wrist compared to their profits. This can be because of familiar ties between judges and defense attorneys or prejudice bias for or against certain parties.
Corporate crime is dangerous because it’s hard to detect, prosecute, and punish. We need better laws; our current laws allow companies to get away with harming people and our planet.
Check out this great article for more information on corporate crime.
THE HARD TRUTH
MORE THAN HALF OF ALL VICTIMS ARE INDIVIDUALS LIKE ME AND YOU (fbi.gov)
Did You Know?
Coca-Cola is allegedly responsible for 9 murder cases of their Colombian employees? They were all union leaders that were killed by paramilitaries who are notorious for collaborating with wealthy corporations and families.
What Can We Do?
First off, we can know our rights (FTC.gov for consumer rights) and demand respect from our government. A great legal solution to this is using formal publicity as a punishment in cases. Formal publicity is a form of punishment where the guilty company is tasked with creating and airing a commercial that explains their crimes and their resolutions to be better. This would be effective because companies care a lot about their reputation. If we put that on the line, it forces them to care about the consequences of their actions. Take it from an advertisement from white-collar defense attorneys: “If you are in danger of being prosecuted for a white collar crime, your career and reputation are on the line. Worse yet, your very freedom may be at stake” (hg.org).
One way for US to help punish corporations is to boycott them when they abuse people or the planet. Companies make it pretty hard to think about them in a bad way when they’re selling us our stuff, but this lets us have control over their punishment.
Ken Saro-Wiwa: environmental activist/victim of corporate crime
Judith Barsi: child actress/victim of male violence
Sandra Bland: BLM activist/victim of authoritative violence
Jamel Myers: 9-yo gay boy/victim of school violence