Fraudulent Justice? Sentencing the Business Criminal (From Paying for Crime, P 86-108, 1989, Pat Carlen and Dee Cook, eds. -- See NCJ-122192)

• NCJ Number: 122197
• Author(s): M Levi
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Open University Press
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This analysis of the sentencing of white-collar criminals who commit fraud in England and Wales concludes that they tend to receive light sentences, although the system of individualization of sentences makes it difficult to demonstrate specific types of sentencing disparities.

Abstract

Although professional people who steal from their clients' accounts are almost always imprisoned, fraudsters experience low rates and lengths of imprisonment and a low average size of fine and compensation. It is unlikely that the 1988 legislation regarding seizure of assets, hardening judicial attitudes, and increased prosecutions by the newly established Serious Fraud Office will change this situation, because sentencers find it difficult to treat fines as a proportion of offenders' means rather than as absolute amounts. Thus, poor offenders who commit burglaries and other offenses are likely to continue to pay more compared with their wealthier counterparts in relation to their means.