ABSTRACT
Aviation and healthcare, as well as other fields of safety-critical practice, are reporting an increase in the criminalization of human error1,2,3,4,5 and criminal prosecution in the wake of an aviation accident is currently standard practice in many countries.6,7 Italy has a specific criminal category of causing “air disaster,” and two airline pilots were recently sentenced to ten years in jail after a crash that killed 19 people.8 In aviation, criminal prosecution of mostly front-line operators in the wake of incidents and accidents has occurred in the Netherlands,9 England,10 Spain,11 France,12 Italy,13 Greece, Cyprus,14 the United States,15 and Taiwan,16 as well as other countries. In healthcare, Sweden recently debated the introduction of the category “patient safety crime”.17
