“The Challenge of White Collar Sentencing”

The title of this post is the title of this new article on SSRN from Ellen Podgor (who is co-authors of the gat blog White Collar Crime Prof).  Here is the abstract:

Sentencing white collar offenders is difficult in that the economic crimes committed clearly injured individuals, but the offenders do not present a physical threat to society. This Article questions the necessity of giving draconian sentences, in some cases in excess of twenty-five years, to non-violent first offenders who commit white collar crimes.  The attempts by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to achieve a neutral sentencing methodology, one that is class-blind, fails to respect the real differences presented by these offenders.  As the term white-collar crime has sociological roots, it is advocated here that sociology needs to be a component in the sentencing of white collar offenders.