Every day we witness serious violations of the law by the state and businesses. Massive ecological disasters, reckless exploitation of natural resources, serious cases of tax evasion, large consumer frauds, deadly accidents due to tragic deficiencies in transportation safety, loss of lives and bodily harm to workers due to inadequate safety protection, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocides, displacements, ethnic cleansings, political assassinations, police abuses, torture, and multiple violations of fundamental individual and social rights. 

These cases cause mass victimization and irreversible social damage to the natural environment, cultural capital, individual and social rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Nevertheless, the way they are perceived and addressed is disproportionate to their social harm. In most cases, these phenomena are not even presented as crimes but as unfortunate incidents, accidents, natural disasters, negligence, leaks, mismanagement, inadequate foresight, misunderstanding, deregulation, or abuse. 

But why does this happen? Why, while we are victims of corruption and economic abuses, are we afraid of becoming victims of theft, robbery, rape, or bodily harm? Why do official social control and criminological research prioritize so-called street crime and those social groups considered "socially dangerous"? Where does the penal law focus and what does it leave unscathed? How does the variable of power affect? This volume attempts to answer some of the above questions and open the dialogue to others. It mainly aspires to initiate a systematic engagement with the crimes of the powerful both at the level of theoretical analysis and empirical documentation and research, turning the scientific spotlight on case studies that address issues around how we perceive and deal with the criminal phenomenon.