Australia

BEGUN AS a British penal colony, Australia is now one of the most law-abiding nations on earth. Nevertheless, [Page 64]as is the case in many modern societies, the phenomena of corporate, organized, and whitecollar crime have blossomed in recent years, thanks largely to ever-increasing profits. Australia holds an important position in the study of white-collar crime, namely through the work of three Australian scholars: John Braithwaite, Brent Fisse, and Duncan Chappell.

Braithwaite, a professor at Australian National University, pioneered new research and theories in white-collar crime. In his book, Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry (1984), Braihwaite reports: “Pharmaceutical companies face great temptations to mislead health authorities about the safety of their products. It is a make-or-break industry. Many companies get virtually all their profits from just two or three therapeutic winners. Most of the data that the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee relies upon in deciding questions of safety and efficacy is data from other countries, particularly the United States. Inquiries into scientific fraud in the United States have shown there is a substantial problem of fraud in safety testing of drugs in America, just as has been documented in Japan.”

Braithwaite's other books and work focus on corporate crime and accountability, and more recently, restorative justice and responsive regulation (examinations of retribution versus restoration in corporate criminal punishment).

Australian attorney and author Fisse is a specialist in trade practices law, intellectual property, ecommerce, and on-line services and liability control systems for corporations. He developed the theory of “organizational blameworthiness” for corporate crime and has argued that the common practice of imposing monetary penalties as sanctions against corporations does little to deter future bad behavior.

Lawyer and criminologist Chappell studies the rise of workplace violence, explaining in one paper, “Workplace violence is not merely an episodic problem created by deranged persons, but is a highly complex issue rooted in wider social, economic, organizational, and cultural factors.”

Chappell's research recommends specific solutions to workplace violence, including adopting criminal and civil law remedies for not only workplace deaths, but the other end of the spectrum as well: psychological violence, whether sexual or bullying harassment.

Having made inroads in the study of white-collar crime through the work of Braithwaite, Fisse, and Chappell, Australia nevertheless has a large presence of cross-fertilized corporate and organized crime. Currently, all of Australia's major cities, and some of its smaller towns, host both Anglo-Australian and international gangs and criminal networks involved in bribery, corruption, and violent crime. Interestingly, the only groups visibly absent from the Australian underworld are the Nigerians and the Mexicans. It seems that North Koreans are getting involved in smuggling heroin into Australia, according to the federal police.

Another important concern for the authorities is illegal immigration, primarily from the Middle East and southeast Asia. Recent Australian administrations have taken a hard line toward those it considers to be queue-jumping. As a result, the federal government instituted its Pacific Solution (September 2001), whereby aliens are to be housed in camps on neighboring islands (Nauru and Papua New Guinea) where their claims will be assessed. Most of the illegal attempts to enter Australia by boat come from Indonesia, where local gangs and corrupt authorities have colluded with international smugglers. And, the Australian Immigration Department recently established a task force in order to crack down on its own corrupt agents who have sold visas (refugee and immigration) to the smugglers. Also, there is evidence that agents have colluded with international prostitution rings that have brought women from Asia and eastern Europe into Australia. Organized crime is also attracted to Australia because of its extensive financial services and gaming (primarily) industries which facilitate moneylaundering.

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