Book Reviews : Just Deserts for Corporate Criminals by Kip Schlegel. Northeastern University Press. 235 pp. cloth

• Author: David Weisburd
• DOI: 10.1177/088740349100500106
• Published date: 01 March 1991
• Date: 01 March 1991
• Subject Matter: Articles

66

Book

Reviews

Just

Deserts

for

Corporate

Criminals

by Kip

Schlegel.

Northeastern

Univer-

sity

Press.

235

pp.

cloth.

CJPR,

VOL.

5,

NO. 1/91,

DIUP

In

a

discipline

inundated

with

research

findings,

often

presented

without

theoretical

background

or

insight,

Kip

Schlegel’s

elegant

book

on Just Deserts

for

Corporate

Criminals

is

a

welcome

change.

The

task

Schlegel

takes

on

is

a

very

difficult

one

that

could

easily

lead

to

confusion

and

boredom.

He

attempts

to

counter

long

standing

arguments

that

have

kept

corporate

criminality

outside

the

philosophical

traditions

that

underlie

the

punishment

of

more

common

law

violations.

he

also

seeks

to

convince

the

reader

that

desert

theory

provides

the

best

method

for

developing

sanctions

for

corporate

crime,

and

in

so

doing

he

provides

a

framework

for

applying

concepts

of

just

deserts

to

corporations

and

their

employees.

This

is

a

very

ambitious

agenda.

But

Schlegel

brings

us

along

this

difficult

trail

with

clear

and

concise

prose,

as

well

as

thoughtful

and

interesting

discourse.

Schlegel

begins

by

examining

the

utilitarian

sentencing

goals

of

corpora-

tions

and

their

employees.

Here

he

provides

the

reader

with

a

useful

description

of

theories

of

deterrence,

incapacitation,

and

rehabilitation

focusing

in

when-

ever

possible

on

their

implications

for

sentencing

corporate

offenders.

His

argument,

though,

is

not

just

introduction

for

the

lay

reader.

Quietly

and

carefully

stated

is

a

strong

critique

of

conventional

sentencing

models.

Utilitarian

goals

have

been

the

major

focus

of

scholars,

whether

examining

corporate

or

more

common

type

offenders.

The

assumption

has

been

that

sentencing

must

have

as

its

central

goal

the

reformation

of

offenders

or

the

protection

of

society,

or

both.

Citing

a

number

of

empirical

studies,

Schlegel

argues

persuasively

that

there

is

little

empirical

evidence

behind

this

crime

control

position.

This

is

true

in

the

case

of

common

crime

offenders,

but

even

more

evident

in

corporate

crime

study

which

has

yielded

relatively

few

empiri-

cal

investigations.

This

leads

easily

to

Schlegel’s

basic

thesis,

that

corporate

sentencing

should

be

grounded

in

principles

of just

deserts.

His

argument

is

not

that

society

should

ignore

utilitarian

goals

in

sentencing,

but

rather

that

such

goals

are

more

likely

to

be

achieved

in

a

sentencing

system

based

on

desert

principles.

For

example,

Schlegel

argues

that

there

must

be

proportionality

in

the

development

of

punishment.

Offenders

convicted

of

like

crimes

should

be

treated

similarly.

likewise,

when

offenders

stand

before

the

bar

for

punishment,

those

who

commit

more

serious

crimes

should

be

punished

more

harshly.

To

do

otherwise,

according

to

Schlegel,

undermines

the

legitimacy

of

the

punishment

process

itself,

and

will

lead

in

the

long

run

to

less

deterrence.

Accordingly,

even

if

empirical

evidence

did

support

the

view

that

certain

offenders,

such

as

those

with

white

collar

background,

were

more

likely

to

be

deterred

by

stricter