Public Views of Corporate Responsibility for Wrong doing

当代法律界最引人注目的现象之一是转向让集团实体承担损害责任，如公司。法律和社会的变化已经逐渐从个人对伤害的责任转向集体责任的来源--组织。今天，预计商业公司将为伤害提供赔偿，而在早期，伤害会被归因于个人或命运。尽管有大量的法律学者对企业承担损害责任这一转变进行了研究，但在企业责任的外行观点方面却鲜有系统的研究。关于公众意见的基本知识至关重要，因为公众的态度以各种方式影响实体法和法律程序，并可能影响公司的行为。这项研究旨在首次系统地阐述企业对不当行为负有责任的外行观点。将采用多种方法进行一系列相互关联的研究，以检验为什么人们要求公司承担责任。第一种方法是对大西洋中部一个州的450名随机居民进行电话调查。该调查将提供对企业不当行为的一般态度的内容、结构和个人决定因素的概况。第二种方法是对以公司或企业为当事人参加过民事审判的陪审员进行访谈研究。对访谈和民意数据的比较将显示，在丰富和详细的法律环境中决定公司责任问题的陪审员是否反映了调查受访者的相同关切和态度结构。最后一组研究使用模拟陪审团模拟的实验方法来检查影响公司对不当行为的责任判断的因素。这些实验将测试被告的财务资源和身份(个人与公司类型)对不当行为判决的影响。该项目旨在提供关于导致公众要求企业对伤害行为负责的关键因素的汇聚数据。通常，未能对公司违法行为采取行动的理由是，公众认为这种违法行为是“道德中立”的行为。这项研究将阐明公民在什么情况下支持对企业社区的干预。更广泛地说，这项研究将促进对集体责任问题的理解。各种团体和组织，如政府、政党和志愿协会，都会出现集体责任问题。此外，在涉及共谋、共谋和从犯的案件中，团体的责任是刑事司法系统中的一个重要问题。

One of the most striking phenomena in the contemporary legal world is the shift toward holding group entities such as corporations responsible for harm. Legal and social changes have produced a gradual movement away from individual responsibility for injuries toward a collective source of responsibility--the organization. Today business corporations are expected to provide compensation for injuries that in earlier times would have been attributed to individuals or to fate. Despite a good deal of legal scholarship on the shift toward holding businesses culpable for harms, little systematic work has been done on lay views of corporate responsibility. Basic knowledge about public views is critical because public attitudes influence substantive law and legal procedure in a variety of ways and likely also affect the behavior of corporations. This research is intended to provide the first systematic account of lay views of corporate responsibility for wrongdoing. A series of interrelated studies employing multiple methods will be conducted to examine why people hold corporations responsible. The first approach is a telephone survey of a random sample of 450 residents from a single mid-Atlantic state. The survey will provide a profile of the content, structure, and individual determinants of general attitudes toward corporate wrongdoing. The second approach is an interview study of jurors who have participated in civil trials with corporations or businesses as parties. Comparisons of interview and public opinion data will show whether jurors who decide issues of corporate responsibility within a rich and detailed legal setting reflect the same concerns and attitudinal structures of survey respondents. A final set of studies uses the experimental method of mock jury simulation to examine factors affecting judgments of corporate responsibility for wrongdoing. These experiments will test the impact of financial resources and identity (individual versus type of corporation) of the defendant on judgments of wrongdoing. The project is designed to provide convergent data on the key factors that lead the public to hold corporations responsible for harmdoing. Often, the failure to take action against corporate lawlessness has been justified by claims that the public sees such lawlessness as "morally neutral" behavior. This research will illuminate the conditions under which citizens support intervention in the corporate community. More generally, the research will advance understanding of the problem of collective responsibility. Collective responsibility issues arise for a variety of groups and organizations such as governments, political parties, and voluntary associations. Furthermore, the responsibility of groups is an important matter in the criminal justice system in cases involving conspiracy, complicity, and accessories to crime.