A company's code of ethics is very important in establishing the expectations and quality of its brand. The code of ethics sets out concrete expectations for employee behavior, accountability and communicates a company's ethical policy to its partners and customers. Good business practice is about having good ethics. Having good ethical practices means knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing what is right. Although good ethical behavior should be adopted automatically, a company must have a set of rules in place that hold everyone accountable. Over the past twenty years, the country has been bombarded with corporate scandals and unethical behavior; although morally wrong, the punishment does not fit the crime. The punishments were excessive. A murderer, rapist, or child molester commits violent crimes and may be out of prison in 10 to 20 years. CEOs who commit white-collar crimes are sentenced to 25 years to life in prison; This article will explain how the penalties imposed for committing non-violent crimes, such as violating a company's code of ethics, are disproportionate to the violent crimes plaguing the country today. White collar penalties are too harsh for crimes. Following the Enron, Washington Mutual Bank, TYCO and World Comm cases, these companies have gone against what is good ethical behavior and their respective company's code of ethics. The criminal justice system has made clear that it will not allow corporations and their executives to abuse the public trust by allowing them to enrich themselves at the expense of their employees. When these crimes are both ethically and morally wrong, CEOs of large corporations are punished with a... middle of paper...... the nonviolent offender should have the same opportunity.References.(March 8, 2007) . Retrieved from Yahoo Voices: http://voices.yahoo.com/worldcom-scandal-look-back-one-biggest-225686.html?cat=3Dash, E. (2008). "$5 billion would be close for WaMu". New York: The New York Times. Haag, E. V. (1982). Commenting on Challenging Just Desserts: Punishing White-Collar Criminals. journal of ciminology and law, 764. Harrison, K. (2010). Dangerous offenders, indeterminate sentences and the rehabilitation revolution. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 423-432. Mclean, B. and Elkind, P. (2003). Smartest guys in the room. New York: Portfolio. Podgor, E.S. (2007). The challenge of white-collar sentencing. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Weissmann, A.B. (2007). White-collar defendants and white-collar crimes. The Yale Law Journal pocket section.