Public Views of Corporate Responsibility for Wrong doing

当代法律界最引人注目的现象之一，是要求企业等集团实体对损害负责的转变。法律和社会的变化已经产生了一种逐渐的运动，从个人对伤害的责任转向集体的责任来源——组织。今天，人们期望商业公司为以前归咎于个人或命运的伤害提供赔偿。尽管有大量的法律学术研究认为企业应该对损害负责，但很少有系统的工作是针对非专业人士对企业责任的看法。公众观点的基本知识至关重要，因为公众态度以各种方式影响实体法和法律程序，也可能影响公司的行为。本研究旨在首次系统地阐述非专业人士对企业过错责任的看法。一系列相互关联的研究将采用多种方法来检查为什么人们认为公司负责。第一种方法是对一个大西洋中部州的450名居民随机抽样进行电话调查。该调查将提供对公司不法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与民事审判的陪审员进行访谈研究。访谈和民意数据的比较将显示，在一个丰富而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同样的关注和态度结构。最后一组研究使用模拟陪审团模拟的实验方法来检验影响公司过失责任判决的因素。这些实验将测试被告的财务资源和身份（个人与公司类型）对错误判断的影响。该项目旨在提供关于导致公众要求公司对损害负责的关键因素的综合数据。通常，未能对公司的不法行为采取行动的理由是，公众认为这种不法行为是“道德中立”的行为。本研究将阐明公民支持企业社区干预的条件。更一般地说，这项研究将促进对集体责任问题的理解。集体责任问题出现在各种团体和组织中，如政府、政党和志愿协会。此外，在涉及共谋、共犯和从犯的案件中，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.