Policing Pollution: The Enforcement Process

In: Policy & politics, Band 10, Heft 3, S. 263-288

Abstract

The article presents findings of an empirical study of the enforcement of controls relating to the discharge of trade effluent into public sewers. The research was designed to examine the extent to which the process of implementation shaped the nature of the controls and focuses particularly on the discretion vested in the individuals concerned with the daily enforcement of the controls. The article discusses the factors which influence the exercise of that discretion. In particular, the field officers' attitudes towards the costs imposed on the traders by compliance and those imposed on society by non-compliance are examined and the relevance attached to the intentions of the trader is discussed. The article concludes, in the first place, that the regular priority given by the officers to the costs of noncompliance does not necessarily coincide with orthodox economic theory in relation to the pursuit of social efficiency and, secondly, that the emphasis placed by the officers on the intentions of the trader helps to alleviate some of the theoretical problems attaching to the imposition of strict liability, although their attitude does raise questions concerning the ultimate justification for the imposition of the criminal sanction.