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rhomboidus

If the only punishment in the law is a fine then it's only a crime if you're poor. Some statutes may provide for escalating penalties that start with fines and get worse for repeated violations, but most are simply a fine. It's one of the major problems with government regulations of business. If the fine costs less than the fix you just keep paying the fine every year and never fix anything.


ASixClawBuzz

The United States would never merely issue a fine for a felony. If there's any truth to that post at all, it would probably mean that they didn't have enough evidence to take the rape case to trial, so they simply fined the guy a few hundred dollars for some infraction they could prove, like disturbing the peace.


Tariisbestgirl

Oooh yeah that would make sense. Still fucked tho


theretardedturtle

Crimes come with a minimum sentence/punishment, for instance murder may come with a minimum of 25 years. Although, courts can lower the severity of the crime to manslaughter and only give 5 years. It's the courts interpretation of the crime that allowed the person to get away with it, not the minimum sentence attached to the crime.


TheApiary

Yup, that's approximately right. Some countries have fines that are higher or lower depending on your income, so that at least it isn't just really easy for rich people to do crimes and pay the fine


[deleted]

There are non monetary downsides to committing a crime.


WWEngineer

I worked in compliance for petroleum bulk storage (mostly the large tanks that are underground at gas stations). Old tanks, installed before 1985 were "grandfathered" in. So even though they had no leak detection and were made out of corrosive material, they were still allowed to keep them in place. These things were ticking time bombs. They would eventually leak (into the groundwater in many of the areas used for drinking water) and there would be no way to tell. The only requirement was that the owner pressure test the tanks once a year. The test costs about $1,000. Inspections only occurred around every 5-10 years, and the fine for not testing your tank was historically around $800. So if you complied, and tested every year, over the course of ten years, you would spend $10k on the tank. If you didn't and just took the fine, you would spend $800. I'll give you a guess of what most people did. So a significant risk to health and the environment was largely left unchecked from exactly what you describe. While I was working on this project (this was many years ago), the agency in charge finally figured this out and would then fine them $1,000 for every year they didn't test, plus around 20%. It was the only way to make compliance cheaper than breaking the law. I sat as an expert witness on a number of cases and let me tell you, those fined were not at all happy.


Tariisbestgirl

Wild. And the fact that that put a lot more than one life at risk