ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with two sets of literature regarding ‘social’ regulation. One, which emanates from the Conservative Right, has informed much regulatory policy and practice in the US and, in a less obvious fashion, in the UK. A second, which is located within a social liberal tradition, has roots which are much stronger within the UK, yet also resonates with some approaches to ‘social’ regulation taken in the US, and beyond. Realist work on the police has addressed directly the ‘problem’ of discretion. Many who write of policework have wrestled with the question of how to minimise the exercise of police discretion. The chapter argues that the distinction between ‘traditional’ criminals and corporate offenders contains both real and ideological aspects. It describes modified some of the arguments of Left-Realism as a prelude to exploring the phenomenon of corporate crime and to developing strategies to combat it or at least to regulate it more effectively.
