Socio-juridical aspects concerning the segment of population imprisoned in Oradea penitentiary for having transgressed the law in the business field

• Author: Gabriel Tica - Ioan Ilea - Dan Lele
• Position: Candidate to Ph.D - Candidate to Ph.D - Candidate to Ph.D - Ministry of Justice. Oradea Penitentiary
• Pages: 239-256

239

SOCIO-JURIDICAL ASPECTS CONCERNING THE SEGMENT

OF POPULATION IMPRISONED IN ORADEA PENITENTIARY FOR

HAVING TRANSGRESSED THE LAW IN THE BUSINESS FIELD

Candidate to Ph.D Gabriel Tica

Candidate to Ph.D Ioan Ilea

Candidate to Ph.D Dan Lele

Ministry of Justice

Oradea Penitentiary

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the social profile of delinquents

that have committed offences of economic nature. The subjects considered in this

paper are persons deprived of liberty that are in the custody of Oradea

Penitentiary, having been imprisoned for transgressing the law in the business

field. As a research method we have used the analysis of documents: it allowed us

to obtain pertinent information concerning the phenomenology of persons

condemned for having transgressed the law in the business field.

Key words: law transgression, Oradea Penitentiary, persons deprived of

liberty, business.

1. Introduction

This papers aims to underline the socio-juridical characteristics of delinquents

that have committed offences of economic nature, starting from the premises that

there are some differences of social nature between this category of persons and

other delinquents. The subjects taken into consideration when writing this paper are

persons deprived of liberty that are in the custody of Oradea Penitentiary, who have

been imprisoned for having transgressed the law in the business field. The

observation and evaluation of these persons has been made by using the method of

document analysis, which provided us with pertinent information concerning the

phenomenology of persons condemned for having transgressed the law in the

business field.

2. Conceptual framework

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The definitions for the economic delinquency are very diverse, since there are

differences resulting from the diversity of juridical systems that sanction such

transgressions of the law, characteristic of each country in particular.

The Swedish juridical system defines law transgression in the economic field as

the sum of actions that are punishable when committed continuously and

systematically, with the aim of obtaining financial advantages from outside the

legal business background. In Sweden, the debates concerning the economic

delinquency refer to the peculation of taxes and other prejudices caused to the state.

The victims of economic criminality are the employers, the creditors, the

employees, the population, the buyers, the competitors and the state, as well as the

society at large (Svensson, p.6).

In the American society, the economic criminality is associated with any non-

violent act or illegal activity that involves fraudulency, falsification, receiving,

manipulation, abuse of trust, cunningness or illegal gains. (American Bar

Association)

The boundary between the economic delinquency and other forms of law

transgression is rather vague. The economic criminality refers to a transgression of

the law in the economic domain, concerning commercial and industrial activities.

There is no single definition that might indicate what the concept of economic

delinquency should refer to. However, two categories of law transgression are

considered dominant: the one concerning the accounting documents and the one

referring to taxes and income taxes. (Jonsson & Persson, p.17)

Theoretical perspectives

The theoretical perspectives upon the causality associated with economic

delinquency are very varied.

One of the dominant theories concerning the economic delinquency is the

actionist paradigm (Benthan, Tarde), that starts from the idea that the deviant act is

the outcome of a certain decision, made after the transgressor has considered more

or less seriously the advantages and the inconveniences of the options he or she has

chosen. The authors mentioned above try to explain the characteristics of a certain

deviant act by identifying the circumstances that might have influenced the

evaluation, by transgressors, of advantages and disadvantages that might

accompany their decision. This paradigm has been given many names: the strategic

analysis, the theory of opportunities, the rational choice perspective, the limited

rationality and the economic theory of transgression. (Boudon, p. 463)

Other theoretical approaches begin their explanatory exposition by referring

to a corrupt organizational milieu. Thus, a study by Levine has defined the

psychological meanings of understanding corruption as being an attack upon the