Corporate malfeasance is all too common and hurts far more than a company’s bottom line. Purdue Pharma’s promotion of opioid use was, by one calculation, the single largest cause of the decrease in U.S. life expectancy during the mid-2010s. Separately, an estimated 45,000 disability-adjusted life years were lost as a result of the pollution from the Volkswagen diesel engines that, in 2008-15, had fraudulently passed emission tests. The Sackler family name—which used to adorn galleries and buildings that the family funded with wealth from Purdue’s success—is mud. But to pin all the blame on the stand-out villains is too easy.

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