Still Dying for a Living ─ Corporate Criminal Liability after the Westray Mine Disaster

Bittle (criminology, University of Ottawa) examines an emerging issue in criminology and socio-legal studies: the analysis of work-related accidents and injuries as a type of crime perpetrated by corporations. He critically examines Canada's corporate criminal liability legislation introduced in 2004, known as the Westray Bill in memory of the deaths of two workers at the Westray Mine in Nova Scotia in 1992, which was intended to strengthen corporate liability and encourage corporate responsibility for safety. The author charts the factors leading to the law's enactment and explains why it is rarely enforced. His analysis draws theoretical inspiration from Foucauldian and neo-Marxist literatures, as well as in-depth interviews and parliamentary transcripts. Appendices list data sources and interviewees. The book is distributed in the US by the University of Washington Press and in Canada by the University of Toronto Press. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Steven Bittle is an assistant professor in theDepartment of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.