Answer the questions using the article below:

1.What are the legal issues associated with corporate criminal liability?

2. Should prosecutors be aggressive in prosecuting corporations for crimes? Why or Why not?

Can Corporations Be Convicted ofCrimes? In 2017, the multinational company, Volkswagen AG, plead guilty to three criminal felony counts brought by U.S. prosecutors, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of justice, and violating the federal Clean Air Act. Prior to the convictions, independent emissions tests had confirmed that a significant number of cars manufactured by the company, including Volkswagens, Audis, and Porsches, were built with specially designed software intended to circumvent the emissions testing process and to fool U.S. regulators into thinking that the vehicles met federal pollution control standards. To some people, the charges seemed strange. People commit crimesand serve prison time for thembut can a company? Wouldn't it make more sense to file a civil lawsuit, which would force companies to pay large fines and change harmful policies?

A Volkswagen rolls off an assembly line in Stuttgart, Germany. In 2017, the company that manufacturers the cars, Volkswagen AG, plead guilty to three criminal felony charges brought by U.S. prosecutors.

Under what legal theory can a corporation be held criminally responsible?

Actually, state and federal governments file criminal charges against corporations all the time, because it has several key advantages, legal experts say. The first advantage comes during evidence gathering. In a civil lawsuit, prosecutors have to contend with the company's right to have an attorney present and make sure the evidence is closely related to the charge. But in a criminal investigation, prosecutors can force employees to testify without a company lawyer and the criminal grand jury has virtually no limits on what it investigates.

The biggest advantage for prosecutors, however, is how the mere threat of a criminal conviction motivates a company to cooperate. A court can't send a convicted company to prison, but it can place it under a judge's supervision for many years, which CEOs would find intolerable. Moreover, a criminal conviction could remove the company from basic activities such as participating in government contracts or holding certain licensesquickly bringing it to extinction.

Consider the 2002 criminal conviction of Arthur Andersen, the once-prestigious accounting firm. As the certified public accountant (CPA) for the energy company Enron, Arthur Andersen was found guilty of helping destroy documents essential to the government's investigation of Enron. When it was convicted, Arthur Andersen had to surrender its CPA licenses, cutting off its main source of income. Two years later, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction on a technicality, but Arthur Andersen was already out of business.

In most cases, however, prosecutors would rather work with live companies than destroy them. As a result of its conviction, Volkswagen agreed to pay a $2.8 billion criminal penalty to the U.S. government and was placed on probation for three years. The company also agreed to be placed under an independent corporate compliance monitor and to fully cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation and prosecution of individuals responsible for those crimes.

Corporations can even be charged with murder and manslaughter for the deaths of people victimized by company actions. Using murder and manslaughter charges, several state attorneys general have gone after corporations in high-profile cases that captured public outrage.