ABSTRACT
The relationship between blame, risk perception and the criminal process is inevitably complex. Identifying some of the influences that make up the intricate pattern of criminal law and practice involves critical questions about the role that blame plays in the construction of the social institution of criminal justice, and how perceptions of risk help to sustain the blame process. Blame may be functional for individuals as well as cultural groups. In contemporary Britain the demands for criminal punishment to satisfy feelings of vengeance appear to be growing. The purpose of this section is to link these observations to current preoccupations with holding corporations liable in criminal law following safety breaches resulting in mass death. First, attention will be focused on some ideas about blame and the role of criminal laws in modern society, before describing the legal background to corporate manslaughter. In the following sections, the concern is to emphasize the significance of the social construction of death in the recent development of prosecutions of corporations for manslaughter.1
