ABSTRACT
The goal of this chapter is to scrutinize the crimes of the powerful in today’s Finland. Aiming to answer Frank Pearce’s call to reveal the imaginary social order, we revisit the empirical findings of our recent “Corporate Criminal Liability (CCL) in Finland” research project. In our study, we investigated the enforcement of CCL and analysed 154 safety crime cases, in which 161 corporations were sentenced to pay a corporate fine. The Finnish CCL represents the maintaining of an imaginary social order in three ways. First, the discourses in court documents contribute to the “responsibilization” of individuals rather than of powerful corporations. Second, although the increasing amount of convictions give the impression that the law is delivering on its promises, the level of fines, constituting often less than 0.1% of the annual turnover, nevertheless only reinforces the illusion of punishment of the powerful. Third, by blaming the victim and turning a blind eye to power relations, the courts end up creating only a simulated justice. We conclude that CCL and its enforcement represent only a spectacle, leaving safety crimes unchallenged, unchecked and unpunished.
