The Politics and Practice of Occupational Health and Safety Law Enforcement

This book takes a critical approach to examining British and Italian occupational health and safety enforcement policies and questions the legal and political principles that underpin them. The book undertakes a comparative critical analysis of these two jurisdictions' health and safety regulatory enforcement practices by focusing on the causes and consequences of the under-criminalisation of these crimes. It explores the fundamentals of these two jurisdictions' criminal justice systems and political practices, policies and traditions and exposes how these translate into pragmatic social inequality and injustice for victims of occupational health and safety crimes and, more generally, citizens. Findings are drawn from qualitative interviews conducted with front line occupational health and safety enforcement officers. This book offers an account of the challenges encountered when attempting to scrutinise public institutions responsible for policing crimes of the powerful. The comparison of the political and criminal justice system practices, polices and traditions of the British and Italian legal systems offer a valuable critical contribution to the anglophone literature on the subject and, more generally, on regulatory enforcement policies and practices.-- Provided by publisher Acknowledgements 7 Contents 8 Abbreviations 9 List of Figures 11 List of Tables 12 Abstract 14 1 Introduction 16 1 Crimes of the Powerful and the State 19 2 British and Italian Legal Systems 22 3 Regulatory Styles, Enforcement and Practices 31 4 View on Abolitionism and OHS Under-Criminalisation 39 5 Book Roadmap 40 References 42 2 Histories and Traditions 47 1 Britain 48 1.1 Enforcement Authorities 53 1.2 Enforcement Activities 54 1.2.1 Enforcement Targets 54 1.2.2 Enforcement Tools 55 1.3 Penalties and Sentences 59 2 Italy 60 2.1 Enforcing Authorities 65 2.2 Enforcement Activities 68 2.2.1 Enforcement Targets 69 2.2.2 Enforcement Tools 70 2.2.3 Compliance-Driven Enforcement Tools 74 2.3 Penalties and Sentences 76 3 Summary 78 References 89 3 Incidents and Enforcement Trends 100 1 Britain 101 1.1 British Incident Trends 104 1.1.1 British Fatal Incidents 104 1.1.2 British Non-fatal Incidents 108 1.2 British Enforcements’ Trends 111 1.3 Summary 114 2 Italy 115 2.1 Italian Incident Trends 116 2.1.1 Italian Fatal Incidents 116 2.1.2 Italian Non-fatal Incidents 117 2.2 Italian Enforcement Trends 119 2.3 Summary 128 3 British and Italian Statistics Compared 129 References 134 4 Scrutinising Public Institutions 137 1 The British and Italian Fieldworks 142 2 Summary and Discussion 145 References 146 5 Enforcement Resources 149 1 Britain 158 2 Italy 166 3 Summary 172 References 179 6 Discretionary and Legal Consistency and Proportionality 185 1 Discretion, Legal Consistency, Proportionality and Fairness 193 1.1 Britain 194 1.2 Italy 203 2 Summary 208 References 214 7 Discretion and Enforcement Activities 218 1 Discretion and Planning Enforcement Activities 219 2 Discretion and the Use of Compliance-Driven Enforcement Policies 223 3 Discretion and On-the-Spot Penalties 228 4 Summary and Discussion 234 8 Conclusion 240 1 History and Context 246 2 Incidents and Enforcement Trends 252 3 How Enforcement Resources Affect Enforcement Policies 253 4 Discretion Fairness or Consistency? 259 5 Discretion and Pragmatic Enforcement Activities 263 6 Final Remarks 265 References 269 Bibliography 273 Index 304 Front Matter ....Pages i-xviii Introduction (Diego Canciani)....Pages 1-31 Histories and Traditions (Diego Canciani)....Pages 33-85 Incidents and Enforcement Trends (Diego Canciani)....Pages 87-123 Scrutinising Public Institutions (Diego Canciani)....Pages 125-136 Enforcement Resources (Diego Canciani)....Pages 137-172 Discretionary and Legal Consistency and Proportionality (Diego Canciani)....Pages 173-205 Discretion and Enforcement Activities (Diego Canciani)....Pages 207-228 Conclusion (Diego Canciani)....Pages 229-261 Back Matter ....Pages 263-300