The second chapter of this book primarily concentrates upon the medical dilemmas posed in the United States. On one side of the coin, the first study concentrates upon how US pharmaceutical companies have utilised activities to drastic effect on the poorest in both US society and the Global South. Citizens in both of these areas were unable to access potentially life-saving medicines produced by Valeant and Turing (to name but two) who fixed the market prices of their drugs. As a result, there has been horrendous suffering arising out of a serious lack of investment in tackling the diseases affecting the poor. In this case, the serious harm caused could and should be considered to be a corporate crime in spite of it being outside the margins of legal enforcement. Through looking at the social harm that the cited incidents of price-fixing had caused, this study attempts to provide a contrasting remedy to the lack of legal action against such practices.

On the other side of the coin, the second study in this chapter looks closely at the Flint Water Crisis that originated from a fiscal crisis destroying the city of Flint, Michigan. The case study reveals how initial problems arose when the city of Flint switched from its Lake Huron water source provided by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to join the Karegondi Water Authority (KWA) once the latter had completed the construction of a new pipeline from Lake Huron to Flint. The decision to join the KWA was motivated by the expected savings of $600 million over the next 30 years alongside the creation of jobs and a reduction in water bills. This move, though, was filled with negligence, corruption or incompetent decision-making. Nevertheless, the increased lead levels in the water supply thereon caused untold and incurable or severe harm to the residents of Flint. Thus, the piece provides a focus on social harm, as opposed to crime, which has the potential to assign the due corporate, collective and political responsibility as illegal and immoral.

Taken as a whole, these two examples of health crime or ‘medico crime’ are related in a number of ways.