The Search for Accountability in Corporate Criminal Law

The purpose of this article is to show that the “responsibility deficit” for corporate wrongdoing requires greater focus on culpable individuals within a business organization. I review recent scholarship demonstrating that firms as entities are not proper objects of moral blame and articulate the main reasons why this view is persuasive. Having established that corporations are not blameworthy moral agents, I argue that the application of liability to firms is by definition incomplete because it negates criminal law’s essential retributivist and expressive functions. A civil suit against a company like Meta can help bring about change. It can also channel some of the public outrage at the company’s decision to ignore a looming public health crisis in order to maximize profits. However, it is impossible to hold a company accountable without also focusing on individual liability of specific people responsible for the harm caused.