PrepTest 158, Section 1, Question 27
The use of criminal sanctions against corporations is(445 more words not shown)
The author would be most(10 more words not shown)
- AIn many instances,(20 more words not shown)
- BThe main function(20 more words not shown)
- CCurrently, corporations are(10 more words not shown)
- DMany people who(19 more words not shown)
- EIn a significant(17 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
One of the author's objections to private civil litigation is that it requires both an identifiable victim and the resources to bring a case. Being harmed doesn't itself give someone the money needed to sue. If this limitation weakens civil litigation's deterrent impact, the author must regard it as a real obstacle in a meaningful number of cases.
Working the answers
- A
The author calls criminal liability a much stronger deterrent. That gives us no basis for saying civil sanctions would frequently deter companies that criminal sanctions fail to deter.
- B
The author identifies the main function of criminal law as censuring wrongdoing. No corresponding claim about the main function of civil liability is made.
- C
We aren't given the relative frequency of civil and criminal proceedings. Criminal sanctions being “well established” doesn't tell us which kind of proceeding occurs more often.
- D
The critics don't say corporate wrongdoing seldom harms individuals. Their objection concerns who ends up paying for sanctions against a corporation. That is different from saying the original wrongdoing rarely has individual victims.
- ECorrect
The author treats victims' limited resources as a reason private civil litigation cannot deter wrongdoing as effectively. E identifies the cases that create that problem: wrongdoing occurs, but nobody harmed has sufficient resources to sue. If such cases were merely negligible, this would have little force as an objection to relying on civil litigation.
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