Looking Glass: A Reply to Caulfield and Laufer

Abstract

In an earlier article, I introduced the character theory of corporate punishment. Inspired by virtue ethics, the theory proposes that criminal law should punish a corporation only by coercively reforming any criminogenic organizational traits responsible for its crime. In a response, Professor Laufer and Mr. Caulfield argued that the theory I offered fails to "take the virtuisitic roots of character theory seriously." This reply concedes the point. It explains the strategic rationale for initially framing the character theory of corporate punishment in consequentialist terms and sketches a more transparently virtuisitic path forward.

Keywords: corporate crime, white-collar crime, punishment theory, regulation, corporate character, virtue ethics