Premium
The Blameworthiness of Health and Safety Rule Violations *
Author(s) -
MASCINI PETER
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9930.2005.00208.x
Subject(s) - blame , judgement , reliability (semiconductor) , factory (object oriented programming) , risk analysis (engineering) , law and economics , business , computer science , economics , political science , psychology , law , social psychology , physics , power (physics) , quantum mechanics , programming language
Man‐made disasters usually lead to the tightening of safety regulations, because rule breaking is seen as a major cause of them. This reaction is based on the assumptions that the safety rules are good and that the rule‐breakers are wrong. The reasons the personnel of a coke factory gave for breaking rules raise doubt about the tenability of these assumptions. It is unlikely that this result would have been achieved on the basis of a disaster evaluation, or high‐reliability theory. In both approaches, knowledge of the consequences of human conduct hinders an unprejudiced judgement about where the blame for rule breaking lies.