By John Braithwaite

This study considers the nature of and ways to counter corporate crime, particularly within the pharmaceutical industry.

Results are presented of interviews with 131 executives in the pharmaceutical industry; interviews were conducted in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Guatemala, and the United Kingdom. Questionable payments disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the 1970's by U.S. pharmaceutical companies -- including American Home Products, Pfizer, Upjohn, Revlon, Dow, Syntex, and Bristol-Myers -- are discussed. Fraud in the testing of drugs and criminal negligence in the manufacture of drugs are addressed, and drugs such as thalidomide, which resulted in the deaths and deformations of more than 8,000 children, and MER/29, which was taken by an estimated 300,000 Americans and caused side effects including baldness, skin damage, and eye damage, are examined. The various ways that pharmaceutical transnational corporations defy the intent of laws regulating the safety of drugs by bribery, false advertising, fraud in the safety testing of drugs, unsafe manufacturing processes, smuggling, and international law evasion strategies are explored. That third world countries are special victims of the global law evasion strategies of transnationals is emphasized. Strategies for controlling corporate crime are suggested, and three subgoals are outlined for achieving a reduction in corporate crime: (1) deterrence -- both specific (against offenders) and general (against those who witness the sanctioning of others) -- can be effective; (2) the law can effectively impose rehabilitation on corporate offenders; and (3) the law can readily require restitution to victims of corporate crime and reparation to the community.

London; New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984 446p.

By Clete Snell

The social acceptance of tobacco use obscures the fact that it is the single greatest preventable cause of death in the U.S., and approximately 80% of those who use tobacco products began using them before the age of 18. Indeed, tobacco companies in the past routinely targeted youth in their marketing and advertising, hoping to hook kids young and keep them with their original brand. Snell explores the tobacco industry's campaign to attract youth smokers and provides an overview of the FDA's investigation of the tobacco industry and how those investigations revealed the industry's deceptions and their specific intent to target youths….As a result of the Master Settlement with the tobacco industry, many states have developed comprehensive programs that have resulted in a substantial decline in youth tobacco use. While national efforts at tobacco regulation have largely failed, local tobacco control efforts have mostly been successful. Snell shows that the future of youth tobacco policy depends on the continued funding of tobacco prevention programs at the state and local level and illustrates that there is considerable evidence that the tobacco industry is shifting its marketing approach to minority populations and developing nations.

Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 188p.

By E. LeGresley and E. Lindblom

Each year approximately 400 billion cigarettes, or one-third of all legally exported cigarettes, end up illegally smuggled across international borders. Cigarettes are the world’s most widely smuggled legal consumer product. Cigarette smuggling hurts the world’s nations by evading otherwise applicable duty fees and taxes. Even worse, it increases the number of smokers by providing a less-expensive supply of cigarettes, especially for the young and the poor. National efforts to restrict access to cigarettes by children can be undermined by the availability of cheap contraband cigarettes. In addition, cigarette smuggling that steals away public revenues leaves less funding available for public health efforts. At the same time, it reduces available revenues for health care and law enforcement. The major international cigarette companies say that the solution for the world’s governments is to reduce cigarette taxes and duty fees to reduce the incentives to smuggle. But an enormous, growing body of evidence shows that the major cigarette companies, themselves, have knowingly fostered and have consciously supported cigarette smuggling. In doing so, they have been able to penetrate otherwise closed markets, to increase the sales of their brands by making them available at lower prices, and to provide an argument against high or increased levels of cigarette taxes or import duties

Washington, DC: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 2002. 54p.