In the years since the 2008 financial crisis, it has become fashionable to point out that no executives were prosecuted for the questionable financial practices that led to the meltdown. The scarcity of prosecutions has served as a potent rallying cry for populist politicians and a cudgel for critics of the Justice Department.

It also likely explains much of the attention aroused by a recent book about how the DOJ lets corporate criminals off easy. “The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives,” by Jesse Eisinger, makes the case that federal prosecutors are afraid to take complicated white-collar cases to trial, primarily because they are afraid to lose.