DeRegulation and Public Health: The New Future of State-Corporate Crime

• In Event: Regulatory Rollbacks 1: The Deregulation of Corporate Crime

Abstract

This paper examines the potential public health consequences of Trump-era deregulation via executive orders and Congressional legislation. We utilize the framework of state-corporate crime to examine how catalysts for action and operationality of controls will likely increase analogous social injuries caused by state facilitated state-corporate crime, state initiated state-corporate crime, and outright state crimes of power. We give particular attention to the defunding of, and anti-regulatory mandates directed toward key agencies of public health and welfare. These include the EPA, Health and Human Services, Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Food and Drug Administration. We argue by defunding and shrinking the portfolios for these regulatory bodies, as well as fostering outright regulatory capture, the actions of the Trump administration portend an increase in the harms these agencies were designed to mitigate. We conclude with an analysis that suggest rollbacks in these areas will not be likely or easily reversed after the Trump administration is succeeded, whether by a new Republican or Democratic presidency.

Authors

• Raymond Michalowski, Northern Arizona University

• Meredith Brown, Northern Arizona University