MORAL RESPONSIBILITY

1. MORAL RESPONSIBILITY By: Ronald F. White, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy College of Mount St. Joseph

2. Conceptual Framework • Praise and Blame • Forward Looking (Teleological) • Backward Looking (Deontological) • Legal Responsibility and Moral Responsibility • Individual Responsibility • Collective Responsibility

3. Individual Responsibility • Responsible Persons • Rationality • Free Will • Responsibility Limiting Conditions • Imperfect information • Imperfect Freedom • Personal Coercion (Threats and Enticements) • Circumstantial Coercion • Social Coercion • Biological Coercion

4. Collective Responsibility • Groups as Voluntary Associations • Hierarchies • Leaders and Followers • Information Flow- • Coercive Power-delegation of responsibility • Responsibility Within Hierarchies • Information • Consent • Coercive Force- • Threats and Freedom to Exit • Shared Responsibility

5. CASES • Jim Jones- • The People’s Temple Agricultural Project • Jonestown, Guyana • Mass Suicide: (Nov. 1978) 914 died: 638 adults and 276 children • Enron Scandal- Corporate Culture

6. Federal Sentencing Guidelines 1991 • Assessing Legal Responsibility for Organizations • Individual Culpability • Corporate Culpability • Organizational Structure can Cause Criminal Activity • Diffusion of Responsibility in Organizations • Strengthen Internal Mechanisms to Prevent Criminal Activity by Agents and Employees • Theories: • Respondeat Superior Theory-any crime committed by an employee within an organization is the prganization’s responsibility. (even “rogue employees”) • Model Penal Code Theory-direct participation, authorization, or tolerance of high officials. • Corporate Character Theory-culpability based on corporate policies or customs cause agents or employees to violate the law on behalf of the corporation. • Participation of HIGH Managerial Officials • Prior History • Obstruction of Justice and Cooperation with Authorities • Program to Prevent and Detect Violations of Law