The Impunity Machine

Why do powerful men so consistently evade accountability across law, medicine, sport, and corporate boardrooms? For decades, the public response has focused on individual villainy—framing every scandal as the work of a few bad actors operating in a broken system. Systems of male impunity are not accidental malfunctions. They are structural outcomes engineered through centuries of legal precedent and institutional incentives. In The Impunity Machine, this conventional wisdom is dismantled to reveal a far more uncomfortable reality: the system is not broken. It is working exactly as it was designed. Moving far beyond pop-feminist rhetoric, this masterwork of institutional analysis exposes the precise legal architecture and economic mechanics that protect the powerful. Tracing the thread from Sir Matthew Hale's 1736 marital rape exemption and historical doctrines of coverture to modern non-disclosure agreements, corroboration warnings, and corporate governance metrics, The Impunity Machine reveals how skepticism toward victims was systematically wired into the DNA of modern law. Through forensic, evidence-backed case studies spanning sports governance bodies, elite institutions, and corporate boardrooms, this book lays bare: The Design: How centuries-old legal precedents continue to dictate modern evidence standards and institutional risk management. The Mechanics: The economic incentives, board structures, and non-disclosure agreements that turn organizations into self-protecting fortresses. The Credibility Premium: Why institutional processes automatically discount victim testimony while granting an unearned premium to structural power. Written with clinical precision, authoritative prose, and relentless analytical rigour, The Impunity Machine does for institutional accountability what The Age of Surveillance Capitalism did for digital privacy and Invisible Women did for data bias. Brilliantly researched and deeply urgent, this is an essential read for legal scholars, policymakers, journalists, and anyone seeking to understand—and ultimately dismantle—the hidden architecture of power.