Monday, June 29, 2009
Madoff goes down
NRO has a good discussion of deterrence in the Madoff sentence. Jonah Goldberg says:
The last point is important, but the rest shows inadequate understanding of the criminal mind.
Length of sentence is not the major factor in deterrence. Professional criminals, whether white-collar or plain old robbers, have a solid sense of their odds of being caught. The ones who arrogantly believe they're too smart to get caught don't last long. Successful crooks know how to estimate the competence and crookedness of the police, and know how to find the blind spots.
In this case the odds of being caught are still extremely low, because the SEC and other supposed watchdogs are still asleep. Obama hasn't followed FDR's example, hasn't cleaned out the old system from top to bottom. The supposed watchdogs had decades of warnings about Madoff and did nothing. We don't know at this point if they were just asleep, or if Madoff was feeding them tasty treats to keep them sweet. In either case, the same tranquilized hounds are still in place.
= = = = =
Later: I see another NRO commenter finally reached the same point. ¶ 2:53 PM
The minds of very smart criminals are probably very complex, if for no other reason than the fact that crime is generally a stupid thing to get caught up in (which is why you very rarely see guys with perfect SAT scores screaming at the camera on "COPS"). Conveying a sense that the system will have no respect for you and your station, that if you get caught the system will be cold to your plight, seems to me a worthwhile message to send, even if it's of only marginal utility. It's also a good message to send to people further down the socioeconomic station who believe that the system is rigged against them.
The last point is important, but the rest shows inadequate understanding of the criminal mind.
Length of sentence is not the major factor in deterrence. Professional criminals, whether white-collar or plain old robbers, have a solid sense of their odds of being caught. The ones who arrogantly believe they're too smart to get caught don't last long. Successful crooks know how to estimate the competence and crookedness of the police, and know how to find the blind spots.
In this case the odds of being caught are still extremely low, because the SEC and other supposed watchdogs are still asleep. Obama hasn't followed FDR's example, hasn't cleaned out the old system from top to bottom. The supposed watchdogs had decades of warnings about Madoff and did nothing. We don't know at this point if they were just asleep, or if Madoff was feeding them tasty treats to keep them sweet. In either case, the same tranquilized hounds are still in place.
= = = = =
Later: I see another NRO commenter finally reached the same point. ¶ 2:53 PM
