Many of the comments here about the utility of punishment is very utilitarian, which is ironically fitting since we're talking of SBF. What I never see acknowledged (or believed) by more lenient people is the fact that adequate punishment (sometimes harsh is adequate) serves to send a message not only to other offenders, but maybe most importantly to non-offenders, that the justice system is worth something. "Crime d…
Great opportunity to remind everyone to think of Ross today. https://freeross.org/ He just tuned 40 yesterday.
Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#732I don't understand why we need to put this guy in jail for 25 years. Similarly, Bernie Madoff, whose crimes were far worse, was sentenced to 150 years. For stealing money! Given that the risk of repeat offense is low, I just don't see the point of these sentences. I think they're mostly about notoriety. Meanwhile murderers and rapists get less time, and they're at high risk for re-offending.
> Given that the risk of repeat offense is low, I just don't see the point of these sentences. Is it? Did he even admit to criminal wrong doing? The article thinks otherwise: > Judge Lewis Kaplan, just before announcing Bankman-Fried's 25-year sentence, said there was a risk "that this man will be in a position to do something very bad in the future, and it's not a trivial risk." > Bankman-Fried acknowledged his mist…
Whether that means he should have a shorter sentence depends on the purpose of criminal sentences. If the purpose is punishment or deterrence, re-offense probability isn't as relevant, but if it is merely to protect others while he is put away, it is the most relevant consideration.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#733Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't lose a penny and I'm giddy about it. Justice has been done.
> I didn't lose a penny and I'm giddy about it. Justice has been done. How can you be giddy about a human being locked in a cage for 25 years? Would you be giddy if he were being flogged, or hanged? As long as there has been recording, flogging and hangings were common punishments and usually defended as "justice has been done." Incarceration really isn't far from medieval punishments. I'm by no means suggesting that…
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#734I don't understand why we need to put this guy in jail for 25 years. Similarly, Bernie Madoff, whose crimes were far worse, was sentenced to 150 years. For stealing money! Given that the risk of repeat offense is low, I just don't see the point of these sentences. I think they're mostly about notoriety. Meanwhile murderers and rapists get less time, and they're at high risk for re-offending.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#735Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there's a good chance his tendencies to arrogance and mendacity will get him killed in prison.
Maybe not killed but pummelled on the regular. He might be cut out for crypto fraud but he’s definitely not going to be cut out for such a long stretch in a “survival of the fittest” environment. Any skills he has are worse than useless inside.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#736It's funny. I lost tens of thousands of dollars thanks to this individual, yet his sentence brings me no joy or arouses any emotion at all. I'm utterly indifferent to his fate for some reason and I don't know why. Yet if he had been a mugger who stole a much smaller amount of money from me on the street, I think I would've been far more vengeful. Should I feel vindictive? Or is it healthy to forget about it and move…
It is funny - especially when you consider a mugger on the street would need your money much more than SBF ever would.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#737I don't understand why we need to put this guy in jail for 25 years. Similarly, Bernie Madoff, whose crimes were far worse, was sentenced to 150 years. For stealing money! Given that the risk of repeat offense is low, I just don't see the point of these sentences. I think they're mostly about notoriety. Meanwhile murderers and rapists get less time, and they're at high risk for re-offending.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#738I don't understand why we need to put this guy in jail for 25 years. Similarly, Bernie Madoff, whose crimes were far worse, was sentenced to 150 years. For stealing money! Given that the risk of repeat offense is low, I just don't see the point of these sentences. I think they're mostly about notoriety. Meanwhile murderers and rapists get less time, and they're at high risk for re-offending.
It's about deterrence. Imagine you're considering committing a crime. You're looking at the upside and the downside. The equation on the downside looks like this: risk = size of punishment * probability of being caught. So how do you deter a potential criminal who is unlikely to get caught? You have to jack up the size of the punishment to compensate for that low probability. Economist Gary Becker started this school…
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#739Re: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
#740To put this into its proper perspective, see table 7 here: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-pu... In 2022, the average murderer in the Federal Southern District of New York (N = 58) was sentenced to a median of 231 months, which comes out to 19 years and change. No crime of any type had an mean or median sentence higher than 25 years; most were far less than half. So it should be really hard…
Statistical value of a human life in the US is around $7.5 million. Stealing $10 billion is therefore statistically equivalent to killing 1300 people, or pretty close to half of 9/11. That seems like a pretty light sentence to me.