Criminalization attached moral stigma to environmental violations within regulated firms.

Evidence

Finally, societal attitudes had changed over time, including within the regulated community. The criminalization of environmental law, beginning in the 1980s, and the growth of environmental curricula in the nation’s schools was not without effect. Corporate officers themselves must live within communities and within families. As the law settles over time, a moral stigma naturally attaches to its violation. One does not want to be classified a felon. Employees “don’t like going home and being scorned for being part of a dirty enterprise as soon as they mention their job.” — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 727

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Environmental regulation created a massive pollution-control industry dependent on continued enforcement. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 718; People seen as breaking moral boundaries are reframed as symbolic pollution to be purged — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice: Society,…, 633

Broader Connections

• People seen as breaking moral boundaries are reframed as symbolic pollution to be purged #expands (0.75) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 633