We’re rarely surprised when a powerful person does something seriously wrong and then gets off with little or no punishment. This lack of surprise could be due to the fact that it’s our fault. In Fortune, Stanford’s Jeffrey Pfeffer explains why powerful people are rarely punished appropriately.

+ Those at the opposite end of the power spectrum are often punished disproportionately. Consider the case of Glenn Ford. He spent 30 years on death row at a Louisiana prison for a crime he didn’t commit. What was his compensation for this unthinkable wrong? A $20 debit card.