<story><title>Volkswagen Official Gets 7-Year Term in Diesel-Emissions Cheating</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/business/oliver-schmidt-volkswagen.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tempestn</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s good that people are being held accountable, but I&amp;#x27;m unsure that prison is an effective mechanism here (or for many other crimes, for that matter).  I mean, what&amp;#x27;s the goal exactly?  I&amp;#x27;d say the risk of recidivism is about nil, so it&amp;#x27;s not about protecting society from him, or about rehabilitation.  So the goal must be to discourage others from committing similar offenses.  Fair enough, but there must be a better and more efficient way to accomplish that than locking people in a compound for several years.  In this case, the financial penalties imposed on the companies themselves seem like a more effective tool.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vesinisa</author><text>From the article:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Mr. Schmidt did not identify any Volkswagen superiors who might have pressured him to lie to regulators.&lt;p&gt;I think the point here is refusal to co-operate with prosecutors. They wanted to know who at Volkswagen told him to lie, and they would have been happy to let him off the hook if he co-operated.  He refused, essentially continuing to demonstrate his loyalty to VW and thus perpetuating his complicity in the criminal justice process of the very crime he was now convicted of. He failed to demonstrative effective repentance, and now must serve as warning example to other white collar criminals.</text></comment>
<story><title>Volkswagen Official Gets 7-Year Term in Diesel-Emissions Cheating</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/business/oliver-schmidt-volkswagen.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tempestn</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s good that people are being held accountable, but I&amp;#x27;m unsure that prison is an effective mechanism here (or for many other crimes, for that matter).  I mean, what&amp;#x27;s the goal exactly?  I&amp;#x27;d say the risk of recidivism is about nil, so it&amp;#x27;s not about protecting society from him, or about rehabilitation.  So the goal must be to discourage others from committing similar offenses.  Fair enough, but there must be a better and more efficient way to accomplish that than locking people in a compound for several years.  In this case, the financial penalties imposed on the companies themselves seem like a more effective tool.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>SturgeonsLaw</author><text>We&amp;#x27;ve had decades of soft touch corporate fines that haven&amp;#x27;t done shit to curb bad behaviour (see: banks), those punishments are utterly ineffective.&lt;p&gt;Giving execs who order criminal acts jail time will be far more effective. Just you watch - VW will absolutely colour between the lines now.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s easy to gamble when it&amp;#x27;s the house&amp;#x27;s money on the table, but when the instigators face real punishment they&amp;#x27;ll sharpen right up.</text></comment>