PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF WORK-RELATED FATALITY CASES: Reaching the Outer Limits of 'Populist Punitiveness'?

A significant body of literature has examined the role of public attitudes in shaping the contemporary politics of law and order, and suggested that a state of 'populist punitiveness' now exists, whereby policy is made in response to harsh and punitive public attitudes towards crime issues. This paper will explore these issues within the context of regulatory and corporate offending. A qualitative investigation into public attitudes towards work-related fatality cases demonstrated that these cases are regarded as serious, but that attitudes regarding punishment in this context are only partially 'punitive'. Demands for significant penalties are underpinned by rationality rather than a desire for revenge, casting into doubt the applicability of populist punitive accounts of lawmaking in this area.