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Criminal Affirmance: Going Beyond The Deterrence Paradigm To Examine The Social Meaning Of Declining Prosecution Of Elite Crime, Mary K. Ramirez

mary k ramirez

Recent financial scandals and the relative paucity of criminal prosecutions against elite actors that benefitted from the crisis in response suggest a new reality in the criminal law system: some wrongful actors appear to be above the law and immune from criminal prosecution. As such, the criminal prosecutorial system affirms much of the wrongdoing giving rise to the crisis. This leaves the same elites undisturbed at the apex of the financial sector, and creates perverse incentives for any successors. Their incumbency in power results in massive deadweight losses due to the distorted incentives they now face. Further, this undermines the …