NCJ Number
126897
Journal
American Criminal Law Review Volume: 27 Issue: 2 Dated: (1989) Pages: 331-366
Date Published
1989
Length
36 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the justification for the major increase that the United States Sentencing Commission set for sentences for bid-rigging and price-fixing under the Sherman Act concludes that the basis and desirability of this portion of the Commission's guidelines are questionable and should be re-examined.
Abstract
Except in these antitrust areas, the guidelines promulgated by the Commission in 1987 dealt exclusively with the sentencing of individual defendants. The Commission apparently believed that adequate statistical evidence existed for it to develop guidelines for organizations convicted of bid-rigging and price-fixing. However, a review of the economic and legal literature on organizational sanctions for antitrust violations shows that little credible statistical evidence exists to justify the assumptions underlying the Commission's sentencing guideline on antitrust violations. As a result, the guideline will probably cause a severe problem of overdeterrence, thereby substantially reducing corporate efficiency. Therefore, a reanalysis of the guideline and recent antitrust cases is recommended. 122 footnotes and appended guideline, tables, and commentary