Whenever a sports team is performing poorly, you can be sure that the coach will talk about "getting back to fundamentals." Societies that are performing poorly should consider the same advice. With the Reformation, and rise of the nation-state, an ancient plank of the criminal justice system--retribution--gradually disappeared, and more's the pity.

Indeed, the Old Testament book of Exodus is full of passages pertaining to how a wronged individual must be compensated by the perp. Somehow, this has all been lost, so that now the criminal's debt is paid to society at large. Exactly what good does it do YOU, if the man who robbed you at gunpoint spends a year in jail? Wouldn't you rather have the money back, along with some compensatory amount?

But, this is a tired old complaint, and has been out of the mainstream for hundreds of years.

Let us turn, then, to a more modern attack on justice: the "shopaholic defense." Surprisingly, restitution will be a part of our story.

Elizabeth Roach, of Chicago, embezzled nearly $250,000 from her former employer to finance shopping binges. She racked up $500,000 in credit-card debt, including such purchases as a purse for $9,000, a belt buckle for $7,000, designer outfits, and dozens of pairs of shoes, according to court documents. She paid the bills by padding her corporate expense accounts. It is amusing that the former employer was big time public accounting and management consulting firm Arthur Andersen. Apparently, Andersen's expertise lies in the preaching, rather than the practice. Would you spend gobs of money for a consultant that can't even monitor its own employees' expense accounts?

Ironically, by making restitution to the company, she helped herself avoid doing hard time. While awaiting sentencing, she was able to pay back the employer by selling stock, and taking out a second mortgage on her condo. Still, more than restitution would be needed to keep her out of the slammer.

After reading corroborating opinions from four psychiatrists who examined Roach for the defense, and an independent psychiatrist paid for by the Government, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly found that her "diminished mental capacity" contributed to the commission of her crime. "In an effort to self-medicate, she engaged in compulsive behavior, namely shopping binges. She was not in any real way able to control that behavior," the judge said in his decision.

Roach was sentenced to five years' probation, six months of weekends confined to her home, six weeks in a Salvation Army work release center, and a $30,000 fine. The judge forbade her to acquire new credit cards and required her to continue getting psychiatric counseling.

Certainly, there are those who aren't buying into this enlightened approach, including Assistant U.S. Atty. Joel Levin. He's preparing an appeal.

"This is the abuse excuse writ large," said James Q. Wilson, professor emeritus at UCLA and author of "Moral Judgment: Does the Abuse Excuse Threaten Our Legal System?" "By admitting the excuse, we permit the crime. Admitting that someone's shopping addiction led them to buy expensive belt buckles is tantamount to letting someone who is moody or irritable steal at will."

It goes without saying that had our perp been a mere thief without the gilt edge, things would not have gone quite as easy. It takes big bucks to mount such an earnestly ridiculous defense. But, if you can convince a federal judge...

As for Roach, she's not complaining. She went from her $150,000 job at Andersen to a $175,000 position at Computer Sciences Corporation. And you thought being convicted of embezzlement and wire fraud might be an impediment to getting a job at all, let alone obtaining a better one.

Perhaps we've discovered a corollary to the famous saying, "No good deed goes unpunished." For Elizabeth Roach, no bad deed goes unrewarded.

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