PrepTest 145 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 9

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

Question · How severe should punishment be for corporate crime?

E.g., crime where a corporation profits from harming consumers

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Economists' Answer · Depends solely on a cost-benefit analysis

E.g., if profits were $6 million, then a fine in excess of that would suffice

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Economists' Answer · Punishment should only affect earnings

Morality should not be a factor in determining the punishment

Critique / Major Premise · Economists' approach is impractical

Sub-premise · Cost-benefit analysis must account for estimated detection ratios

Not every crime is detected. If corporations were punished only for the crimes that are detected, they would actually be incentivized to keep committing the crime and reaping profits.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

The primary purpose of the ███████ ██ ██

criticize courts for █████ ████████ ██ █████████ █████████ █████

The author doesn’t criticize courts; she criticizes a particular economic framework for determining punishments for corporate crimes.

describe some of ███ ███████ ████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ █████

This doesn’t capture the author’s criticism of a certain economic framework for determining punishments for corporate crimes.

condemn corporations for ███████ ██ ████████ ███ █████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███████

The author doesn’t criticize corporations; she criticizes a particular economic framework for determining punishments for corporate crimes.

argue against some ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ █████████ █████

This best captures the author’s purpose. The author criticizes a certain economic framework for how to penalize corporate crime (the framework that looks at only cost/benefit).

94%

urge the implementation ██ █ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████████ █████

The author doesn’t present a “specific proposal” for penalizing corporate crime. Although she does advocate for use of another criterion, she doesn’t specify what criterion should be used.

PrepTest 145 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 9

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