Regulation touches upon areas of vital importance to our lives and the economy, but it is still very much a 'grey area' of criminal law and social control, subject to very little academic scrutiny. This book combines an analysis of the broader structural factors which influence regulation and its definition at the everyday level with a discussion of empirical data, to reach a thorough understanding of the subject. The empirical data focuses on the regulation of economic activities in the areas of occupational health and safety and the environment in England and Wales in the 1980s.