ABSTRACT
This chapter has presented some of the main criminological contributions to the analysis of the crimes of the powerful and discussed the legal-illegal continuum characterizing the practices of organizations and powerful actors. The field of criminology may or may not remain disproportionately preoccupied with socially vulnerable offenders involved in conventional crime. The chapters looks at the social damage caused by corporate actors, it is legitimate to wonder why the focus on conventional crime historically adopted by criminology is still prevailing. Anomie and control theory, for example, have both been mobilized to explain the crimes of the powerful. The new criminologists were unhappy with this formulation, because once the notion is established that powerful organizations are the agents of the bourgeoisie, studies concerned with their specific social composition and occupational culture constitute unnecessary diversions from that notion. The chapter attempts isolate some of the distinct stages of identifying a number of criminal conducts displaying their own specific characteristics.
