Artikel

Welzijnscriminaliteit: poging tot probleemstelling

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Abstract

Criminality of welfare. An attempt at stating the problem - At present welfare emerges as an extensive complex of values more and more strikingly in the limelight. Most thought is given to five aspects: physical-mental well-being, material welfare (prosperity), social welfare (to be able to participate satisfactorily in the human community), cultural well-being and spatial welfare (physical milieu). From experience one has learned that prosperity does not automatically lead to welfare but, on the contrary, it seems that the basis of the modern affluence is, at the same time, the structural basis of the threat to well-being. Environmental pollution, overpopulation, dissipation of scarce elements, commercial exploitation in the shape of falsification of necessities and adulteration of consumer goods, and elusion of social and economic responsibilities are structurally connected with the socio-economic system which the affluent society buttresses. The individual is hardly protected against these menaces. Ever since criminology and especially criminal sociology has given more attention to the manner in which the society organises itself regarding delinquency, this complex of problems becomes central. One can collate the studies concerning white-collar crime with the criminality of welfare. One is confronted with one and the same problematic concerning the perpetrator, tracing, adjudication and punishment; namely, a minor group of invisible and relatively unreachable culprits against a major group of powerless, barely protected potential victims. From an analysis of the legislation regarding environmental management, it appears that situations which form a threat to well-being seldom or ever induce mediations of criminal law. Where penal intervention does occur, the lawsuit is limited to light fines. The penal law can only play a secondary part. In the first place, organisations which claim to protect the rights of the consumer should be involved with the constructing of a preventive policy.

How to Cite:

Peters, T., (1973) “Welzijnscriminaliteit: poging tot probleemstelling”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 18(2), 137–159. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95941