A study by Hill et al. (1992) examined, among other things, whether
larger firms committed proportionately more crimes than smaller firms.
Their results demonstrated a significant link between EPA violations per
employee and firm size. Although the evidence remains somewhat unclear,
following Hill et al. (1992), the present study will assume that larger firms
do commit proportionately more illegal activity than smaller firms. This
view seems valid given that 184 of the largest firms in the US economy will
be examined in this study. Given their sizes, these firms should have knowledge
of those laws affecting their activities and the resources needed to
comply with those laws.