Criminogenic Dynamics of the Construction Industry: A State-Corporate Crime Perspective

Abstract

Construction industries provide significant opportunities for criminal and harmful processes to occur, including fraud, tax evasion, poor health and safety, and underpayment of workers. Building on previous work from the state-corporate crime agenda, this article places industry at the forefront of discussion, by examining how “criminogenic industry structures” emerge in construction work. The article refers to the key instances of worker blacklisting and “umbrella company” tax fraud, situating them within broader discussions on systemic processes that enable state-corporate harm to develop. This paper contributes to the state-corporate crime agenda by demonstrating how discussions on criminogenic industry structures provide critical links between organizational processes and broader political-economic dynamics, which is crucial for developing a criminological discourse.