Law in Contemporary Society

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DiminishedIndividualCulpability 2 - 03 Feb 2010 - Main.JessicaHallett
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 I just noticed this case that I thought presented an interesting take on individual culpability. If I understand the case properly, Butler sold people high risk subprime mortgages, claiming they were low-risk student loan backed (and I think we all realize how hard those are to default on). The interesting thing comes during sentencing - in giving Butler a below guideline sentence, Judge Weinstein noted that “The court imposed a non-guideline sentence, taking into account the defendant’s personal situation and characteristics and the circumstances of the financial industry in which he worked,” an industry with a "pernicious and pervasive culture of corruption" and "beset by avarice". While I understand the sentiment, it seems strange to reduce an individual's guilt because an entire system has played outside the bounds - particularly since he was actively defrauding people. Is this diffusing culpability throughout the system? Or claiming that if the bubble never burst, his fraud wouldn't have been 'that bad'?

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/the-message-in-a-crooked-brokers-reduced-sentence/19328974/?icid=main|aim|dl3|link5|http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/the-message-in-a-crooked-brokers-reduced-sentence/19328974/

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 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601127&sid=ao3g1KEa21x4
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 -- StephenSevero - 01 Feb 2010
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>		This is interesting...I do think that's it's somewhat illogical to reduce one individual's sentence merely because he is part of a culpable system. But then again, don't judges often display leniency when sentencing based on background and circumstances? I'm wondering if the judge was purposely trying to avoid punishing one individual for the crimes of an entire system- and while that comes off looking like excusing him because of systemic failures, it might really be an avoidance of blatantly making an example out of him. Personally, I don't think a much longer sentence would be particularly beneficial in the way of deterrence- I think for financial crimes where the perpetrators generally think they won't get caught, the big effect here is that he did get caught and did get sentenced at all. If potential criminals would be deterred (if at all), I'm guessing the prospect of jail at all is deterrence enough. That all said, there's an issue of how much time he "deserves" for his crime- I personally find it really difficult to determine that kind of a number, so I honestly am unsure how to react to the sentence he actually was given. But I do think that punishing one for the crimes of many is not morally justifiable- and if leniency (within the bounds of judicial discretion) is the way to avoid this, perhaps it isn't so outrageous.

-- JessicaHallett - 03 Feb 2010


DiminishedIndividualCulpability 1 - 01 Feb 2010 - Main.StephenSevero
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Added:
>
>		I just noticed this case that I thought presented an interesting take on individual culpability. If I understand the case properly, Butler sold people high risk subprime mortgages, claiming they were low-risk student loan backed (and I think we all realize how hard those are to default on). The interesting thing comes during sentencing - in giving Butler a below guideline sentence, Judge Weinstein noted that “The court imposed a non-guideline sentence, taking into account the defendant’s personal situation and characteristics and the circumstances of the financial industry in which he worked,” an industry with a "pernicious and pervasive culture of corruption" and "beset by avarice". While I understand the sentiment, it seems strange to reduce an individual's guilt because an entire system has played outside the bounds - particularly since he was actively defrauding people. Is this diffusing culpability throughout the system? Or claiming that if the bubble never burst, his fraud wouldn't have been 'that bad'?

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/the-message-in-a-crooked-brokers-reduced-sentence/19328974/?icid=main|aim|dl3|link5|http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/the-message-in-a-crooked-brokers-reduced-sentence/19328974/

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601127&sid=ao3g1KEa21x4

-- StephenSevero - 01 Feb 2010


Revision 2r2 - 03 Feb 2010 - 19:01:18 - JessicaHallett
Revision 1r1 - 01 Feb 2010 - 21:42:51 - StephenSevero
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