Another Sociology Post in relation to the unequal application of justice between white collar and other criminals.
As to the actions of Martha Stewart, she is serving a prison sentence for a white collar crime. It is a light sentence, even though the crime could represent a very serious breach of the law. Sociologists may tend to explain her crime and the method and means of punishment in the Social-Conflict analysis. In this analysis, those who have power will tend to subjugate those who do not. Also, crimes that are represented higher amongst the poor or the working class will tend to get a stiffer penalty than crimes that are committed by the rich even those crimes committed by the rich may represent serious matters and large sums of money.
This may fail to fully explain this unique circumstance because there is the very real presence of politics in this particular case. Martha Stewart’s insider trading, though a very real breach of the law, went punished and pursued passionately, even though there are other white collar criminals who committed more serious crimes against the public go unpunished. The politics of this case can be shown in the case of Ken Lay, who as of right now, is not in jail for his very real, very serious involvement in the collapse of Enron. Or, politics can be shown in that the US government still steers most of their long distance phone service to MCI, who two and half years ago, had the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history due in large part to their shoddy and illegal accounting practices. It is worth mentioning that “Kenny Boy” Lay is/was a good friend of the President, and MCI has been a large financial contributor to the Republican party, while Martha Stewart has been a strong democratic party supporter. Martha looked at all of her options and avoided a long and costly trial by employing a plea bargain to get a relatively light sentence imposed so that she can get it over with. Was that smart for her? Maybe, five months is not a long time and Martha Stewart will likely prove resilient enough that she may come out of prison in a stronger financial position than before she went to prison.
I must point out that I do not support or condone Martha Stewart, I am only merely pointing out some of the unequal application of justice as I see it.
As to the actions of Martha Stewart, she is serving a prison sentence for a white collar crime. It is a light sentence, even though the crime could represent a very serious breach of the law. Sociologists may tend to explain her crime and the method and means of punishment in the Social-Conflict analysis. In this analysis, those who have power will tend to subjugate those who do not. Also, crimes that are represented higher amongst the poor or the working class will tend to get a stiffer penalty than crimes that are committed by the rich even those crimes committed by the rich may represent serious matters and large sums of money.
This may fail to fully explain this unique circumstance because there is the very real presence of politics in this particular case. Martha Stewart’s insider trading, though a very real breach of the law, went punished and pursued passionately, even though there are other white collar criminals who committed more serious crimes against the public go unpunished. The politics of this case can be shown in the case of Ken Lay, who as of right now, is not in jail for his very real, very serious involvement in the collapse of Enron. Or, politics can be shown in that the US government still steers most of their long distance phone service to MCI, who two and half years ago, had the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history due in large part to their shoddy and illegal accounting practices. It is worth mentioning that “Kenny Boy” Lay is/was a good friend of the President, and MCI has been a large financial contributor to the Republican party, while Martha Stewart has been a strong democratic party supporter. Martha looked at all of her options and avoided a long and costly trial by employing a plea bargain to get a relatively light sentence imposed so that she can get it over with. Was that smart for her? Maybe, five months is not a long time and Martha Stewart will likely prove resilient enough that she may come out of prison in a stronger financial position than before she went to prison.
I must point out that I do not support or condone Martha Stewart, I am only merely pointing out some of the unequal application of justice as I see it.
posted by Mark at 4:28 PM
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