Review of Pearce and Tombs, Toxic Capitalism.

• Date: 22 March 2002
• Author: Ruggiero, Vincenzo
• Published date: 22 March 2002
• Author: Ruggiero, Vincenzo

Frank Pearce and Steve Tombs, Toxic Capitalism: Corporate Crime and the Chemical Industry. Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1998. Paperback edition published by Canadian Scholars Press (Toronto).

THE MORE POPULAR CRIMINOLOGY BECOMES AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE, THE MORE frequently I come across colleagues who seriously think of abandoning it. This is not surprising if we consider that the increase in student recruitment and the creation of new courses appear to go hand in hand with the general identification, among public agencies and within specialist circles, of crime with conventional illegitimate conduct. This is also the reason I accepted to review Pearce and Tombs' book, the authors having followed in the footsteps of "defectors" who, like myself, seek some viable tools for the analysis of crime in other academic fields, mainly economics, politics, social theory, and the sociology of organizations.

Toxic Capitalism sets off with a detailed examination of neoliberal arguments supporting and legitimizing the present economic order. These are located within the dominant contemporary discourse whose strength is less determined by its coherent description of reality than by the ideological consensus it mobilizes. In this sense, because such arguments reflect specific visions of society, state, and economy, they are treated as strategies used by powerful actors in the struggle for hegemony. Examples in this respect abound, particularly when we examine the relationship advocates of the free market establish with the state: contrary to claims that state interference in markets is damaging, many enterprises owe their position to that very interference. As Marx and Engels would have it, we are faced with stem believers in marriage who secretly commit adultery. Similarly, when the polarization of wealth within and between...