CORPORATE CRIME THROUGH CITIZENS EYES - STRATIFICATION AND RESPONSIBILITY IN THE UNITED-STATES, RUSSIA, AND JAPAN

A citizen's judgment of wrongdoing in an organizational setting may de pend on characteristics of the citizen, of the focused, or both. In 19 93, random sample surveys exploring judgment of corporate wrongdoing w ere carried out in Washington, DC (N = 602), Tokyo, Japan (N = 600), a nd Moscow, Russia (N = 597). Respondents heard hypothetical vignettes about wrongdoing in organizations and were asked to judge the actor's responsibility and related issues; they also provided demographic info rmation and recounted their attitudes toward corporations. Education w as more powerfully related than social class to responsibility judgmen ts. In the United States, education's effects on responsibility were i ndirect, operating through attitudes toward obedience and toward corpo rate accountability. Russian and Japanese results were unmediated by a ttitudes. It appears that responsibility is primarily a function of so ciolegal factors (such as aspects of the case) and secondarily a funct ion of social characteristics and the sense of similarity or differenc e they engender. The article concludes by discussing general issues in accountability within corporate settings across cultures.