Crime Watch : Holdup at Pen Point

An old saying has it that you can steal more with a pen than a gun. Now a new study for the U.S. Justice Department shows that you’re likely to spend much less time behind bars, too.

Two UC Irvine criminology professors and a sociology professor from St. John’s University in New York examined fraud in the savings and loan industry, in which the collapse of dozens of institutions in the 1980s resulted in well over $100 billion in losses.

In 1988, the average prison term for those convicted of major crimes related to savings and loans was 36.4 months. The average burglar spent 55.6 months in prison and the average car thief 38 months, the study found.

Compounding the outrage is the fact that although the crimes cost S&Ls; more than $8 billion that year, judges imposed fines and restitution orders of less than $348 million. The study said far less than that ended up being collected. The findings mock the nation’s commitment to equal justice under the law, and foster cynicism about white-collar crimes and the willingness of prosecutors to pursue them vigorously. The Justice Department should direct federal prosecutors to seek stiffer sentences from judges and take a closer look at plea bargains.

The crimes may be nonviolent, but they do victimize. Taxpayers must cover the insured losses of the savings and loans. Some bank customers were not protected by insurance and wound up impoverished. Prosecutors need to get tougher and judges need to crack down on crime in the suites as surely as in the streets.