It's not a lack of punishments available that's the problem.
Precisely. If Kevin Clinesmith had been disbarred and put in jail it would go a long way towards reducing similar conduct in the future. But he's got his law license back so what does that tell you? Outrages like that is what make people think of even greater punishment, but you are 100% correct - enforcing the laws on the books is what matters.It's not a lack of punishments available that's the problem.
We have the laws now to put these people in prison for a long time.
It's that we don't use those laws.
You can make the penalty death by slow torture and it won't matter if nobody actually enforces the law.
If they enforced the law now, the problem would go away since they would all be guests at the gray bar hotel.