By not naming and condemning this evil, the bishops are allowing it to grow unchallenged. They have failed to properly analyze crime. There is an assumption that nearly all crime is individualized crime, largely of the street variety. There is little recognition and no analysis of corporate crime and governmental crime. Yet these are huge areas of criminal offending by any reasonable definition of crime.
Corporate crime is endemic the world over.
Very few are ever held responsible for its devastating effects. As for governmental crime, the U.S.-backed sanctions imposed on Iraq, which continue to kill thousands each month, are one obvious instance. Another is the illegal and immoral use of depleted uranium in Vieques, Iraq, Kosovo, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Puerto Rica and Okinawa, Japan, that has sickened civilian populations and contaminated the earth for generations to come. This is huge crime. Another is the production of nuclear waste without the knowledge of how to safely contain it, thus endangering millions.