No-one’s property? The police investigation of occupational safety crimes

 

Anne Alvesalo

Police College of Finland

 

 

Studies on policing hardly ever deal with corporate crime, and research into corporate crime rarely concerns police work. Studies on police culture and practice are overwhelmingly concentrated on patrol officers or enforcement of conventional or street crime. Crime investigation in general is an under-researched field, and hardly any studies on corporate crime investigation exist in the field of police-studies. This remains the case, even though - or maybe because - it is accepted as conventional wisdom that in general, non-enforcement of law designed to control illegal business activity is the norm; enforcement activity tends to focus upon the smallest and weakest individuals and organisations

 

The aim of the presentation is to introduce the results of an empirical research project on the police investigation of occupational safety crimes in Finland. The research aims to answer the following questions: how is the investigation of occupational safety crimes organised within the police;  what is the level of readiness to investigate such crimes; what is the position of occupational safety crimes investigators within the police; how are occupational safety crimes investigated;  what are the particular problems of such work.