The Criminalization of Human Error in Aviation and Healthcare: A Review

Dekker · Safety & Error, Voice & Silence · Safety Science · 2011 · Paywalled

A review of the growing phenomenon of criminal prosecution following professional mistakes in aviation and healthcare. Dekker examines the social causes — rising risk consciousness, intolerance of failure, and media pressure — and the organizational and psychological consequences. The key finding: criminalisation directly threatens safety by suppressing voluntary error reporting, the mechanism through which safety cultures learn. Workers and professionals who fear prosecution do not disclose near-misses; investigations are impeded; and the individuals prosecuted suffer severe secondary psychological harm. The paper provides the empirical and theoretical grounding for why accountability without psychological safety is not just ineffective but actively dangerous — and why just culture frameworks must go beyond simply removing blame to actively protecting those who report honestly.

Dekker, S. (2011) 'The criminalization of human error in aviation and healthcare: A review', Safety Science, 49(2), pp. 121–127.

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