Reading Comprehension

PT145 · S1 · P2 · Q9 Corporate Crime

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The following passage is adapted from an article published in 1993.

Topic

How we should determine penalties for corporate crimes (like when corporations profit from selling harmful products)

Framework

Challenge Position

Main Point

The economist’s idea that penalties for corporate crimes should only be set by ensuring the fine exceeds the profit from the crime is impractical, because it ignores the need to factor in detection rates and moral considerations; in reality, we need to include more than a simple cost/benefit calculation if we want fair and workable punishments. Most Valuable Sentence: (Last paragraph)

P1: Introduces the Economists’ Approach

Some economists say that the only thing that should matter when deciding fines for corporate crimes is math: the fine just needs to be higher than whatever profit the company made from wrongdoing.

P2: Expanding on the Economists’ View

These economists believe that how much society hates a specific crime (like selling tainted food) shouldn’t impact the penalty—just the impact on the company’s finances.

P3: The Author Pushes Back—It’s Not That Simple

The author starts to poke holes in this idea, pointing out you have to consider how often these crimes are actually detected. If companies think they won’t often get caught, a small fine won’t stop them from taking the risk. So, the “just” fine would have to multiply up—maybe needing to be $60 million instead of $7 million if only 1 in 10 get caught.

The primary purpose of the passage is to

criticize courts for their leniency
Out of Scope (criticizing courts)
Our author's opponent in this passage are the economists who propose penalties that just barely exceed the profit from the crime. She isn't opposing or criticizing courts for being too lenient.
0% picked this
describe some of the reasons
Too Neutral / Too Narrow
Not only does almost none of the passage get into why a corporation would engage in corporate crime, but to purely describe why something happens has no connection to our frameworks of opposing the economists / finding fault with their method.
0% picked this
condemn corporations for failing to
Out of Scope (criticizing corporations)
Our author's opponent in this passage are the economists who propose penalties that just barely exceed the profit from the crime. She isn't opposing or criticizing corporations. Obviously, she opposes crime in the common sense way that we all do, but the passage isn't addressed to corporations, making them feel bad about their moral failings. The passage is addressed to the economists, whose method of penalizing corporations doesn't work sufficiently well.
0% picked this
Correct
argue against some economists’ view
Why this is right
This answer has the Challenge Position vibe. The critics' approach "seems highly impractical if not impossible to follow". Both P3 and P4, where we hear the author's voice the most, have topic sentences about the economists' approach.
Skill tested: Primary Purpose · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
94% picked this
urge the implementation of a
Out of Scope (specific proposal)
Given that the last sentence of the passage has some Solution vibes, this may be somewhat tempting. But the author doesn't offer any specific proposal, just "some other criterion in addition to cost and benefit is necessary". She spitballs "assigning moral weight" as a potential example of some other criterion, but she doesn't specifically argue for that.
6% picked this

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