Identifying liability for organizational errors

The key goals of this volume are to identify and to promote alternative ways in which psychology might be applied to inform and improve criminal justice systems. In doing so the authors have not adopted a strict or exclusive notion of 'psychology' but, rather, they have recognized it as one of the behavioural sciences. However, there has also been an, implicit, tendency to adopt an individualistic focus. In one sense that is unsurprising since criminal justice systems are, overwhelmingly, concerned with issues relating to individuals, for example their capacity, criminality, intentions and punishment. But individuals live, work and play in groups, communities, organizations. It is, at least, artificial to ignore or to underplay the significance of social, cultural and other factors on our individual behaviour and organizations can constitute legal entities. Corporations, for example, are 'people' in legal terms; they have 'births' can 'die' although they merge rather than marry. As well as being able to own property and make contracts, and so on, in their corporate capacity, they can also be sued and -to a limited extent- be prosecuted. Many other organizations, public, private and voluntary, such as police forces, hospital trusts, prisons and voluntary bodies, are in a similar position, whether for profit or not.