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Part I
TYPES OF PUNISHMENT FOR CRIME
Motto: Let the punishment fit the crime (Let the punishment equal the crime)
Key words:
Fine- __________________;___________________________________________________
Punishment_______________;___________________________________________________
Suspended sentence________;____________________________________________________
Convicted person__________;____________________________________________________
Offence__________________;____________________________________________________
Imprisonment_____________;___________________________________________________
Mitigation________________;___________________________________________________
Prohibited________________;___________________________________________________
Public censure_____________;___________________________________________________
Released__________________;___________________________________________________
Read the key words and give the Romanian equivalents. What is your understanding of these
words? Write a sentence with each of them.
Starting up:
1. In your opinion, what does punishment mean?
2. What kinds of punishment do you know?
Vocabulary:
A. Match the words from the box with the definitions below:
Drug smuggling shop-lifting fraud
hijacking kidnapping arson
pick pocketing mugging theft
A. They broke the window of his car and stole the radio
D. They held a pistol at the pilots head and he had to do what they said
F. They look some things off the shelves and left the supermarket without paying for them
G. They took away the rich mans son and asked him for a lot of money
H. They hit the man on the head, as he was walking along the street, and stole all his money
and credit cards
I. They took her purse out of her handbag, as she was standing on the crowded platform
waiting for the train.
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B. Here is the list of punishments for crimes in the UK:
Capital punishment, life imprisonment, community service order, probation,
fine, suspended sentence, corporal punishment, imprisonment.
Put the punishments from the box in the order you think proper, starting with the least
serious and ending with the most serious. For example you may think that the least
serious punishment is probation, followed by a fine, followed by a community service
order.
DEBATE
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth!
What is your personal understanding of the above statement? Your
arguments should begin with:
For Against
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth! An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth!
You support your friend saying that different kinds of punishment have been
practiced since the early history of most societies. You remind the audience
that such penalties as physical mutilation, branding and torture have never
served the rehabilitation of a person. You think that the process of
rehabilitation needs rather a long period of time and special environment. So
you are sure that prisons are still necessary.
Lead-in
Write down the things you know about the history and types of punishment, and ask
questions about what you would like to find out. Then read the text to check your
information and explain the underlined words and expressions:
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felons; offender; beheading; adultery; pillory; punishment; execution; deliberately
condemned; ancient; medieval; guilty; legal; public
For the most history____________has been both painful and___________in order to act as
deterrent to others. Physical punishments and public humiliations were social events and carried out
in most accessible parts of towns, often on market days when the greater part of the population were
present. Justice had to be seen to be done.
One of the most bizarre methods of___________was inflicted in ancient Rome on people
found________of murdering their fathers. Their punishment was to be put in a sack with a rooster, a
viper, and a dog, then drowned along with the three animals.
In_________ Greece the custom of allowing a ________ man to end his own life by poison was
extended only to full citizens. The philosopher Socrates died in this way. Condemned slaves were
beaten to death instead. Stoning was the ancient method of punishment for____________among
other crimes.
In Turkey if a butcher was found guilty of selling bad meat, he was tied to a post with a piece of
stinking meat fixed under his nose, or a baker having sold short weight bread could be nailed to his
door. One of the most common punishments for petty offences was the____________, which stood
in the main square of towns. The___________was locked by hands and head into the device and
made to stand sometimes for days, while crowds jeered and pelted the offender with rotten
vegetables or worse.
In_________Europe some methods of execution were_________drawn out to inflict maximum
suffering._________were tied to a heavy wheel and roiled around the streets until they were crushed
to death. Others were strangled, very slowly. One of the most terrible punishments was hanging and
quartering. The victim was hanged, beheaded and the body cut into four pieces. It remained a
__________method of punishment in Britain until 1814.___________was normally reserved for
those of high rank. In England a block and axe was the common method but this was different from
France and Germany where the victim kneeled and the head was taken off with a swing of the
sword.
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prescribed time under the supervision of a probation officer. Sometimes a fine is also imposed, or
restitution (returning what was stolen) is required. Specific conditions are usually attached to the
probation. These conditions may include keeping a job, avoiding certain companions and meeting
places, and not leaving the area. A defendant who violates the probation terms may have the
probation and suspended sentence revoked at a court hearing and then be sent to jail or prison.
Sometimes a convict(condamnat) serving in prison may be released early on parole(cuvnt de
onoare) because of good behavior and evidence of rehabilitation. The decision is made by a parole
board(comitet de onoare) and may be revoked if specified conditions are violated. These conditions
generally include periodically reporting to a parole officer and avoiding any criminal activity.
Pardon(graiere), by the governor or president, releases the convict from the entire punishment,
including future disabilities such as the ban on holding public office.
Criminal punishment of persons who have committed crimes is one or the forms of state
fight against crime. Any criminal punishment is always a restriction of the rights of convicted
persons. This restriction is a sort of retribution(pedeaps) for the crime a person committed. If a
person is convicted, the court decides on the most appropriate sentence. The facts of the offence, the
circumstances of the offender, his/her previous convictions are taken into account. The more serious
an offence is, the stricter a penalty should be.
But in any case, the responsibility of the court is to impose an exact and just punishment
relevant to the gravity of a crime. The more just the punishment is, the greater is the possibility of a
person's reformation. The defence lawyer may make a speech in mitigation(atenuare) on behalf(n
favoarea) of the offender.
There are the following basic penalties: deprivation of liberty imprisonment for a certain
period of time or life imprisonment, exile, fines.. Capital punishment is usually used only as an
exceptional measure when an especially grave crime was committed. The list of such crimes is not
long and it is strictly determined by law. There are quite a lot of countries where death penalty is
prohibited.
Crime and punishment are, respectively, the intentional commission of an act usually deemed
socially as harmful or dangerous and specifically defined, prohibited, and punishable under the
criminal law; and the infliction of some kind of pain or loss upon a person found guilty of
committing such a misdeed.
Most countries have enacted(adoptat) a criminal code in which all of the criminal law can be
found, although English law-the source of many other criminal law systems-remains uncodified. The
definitions of particular crimes contained in a code must be interpreted in the light of many
principles, some of which are not expressed in the code itself. The most important of these are
related to the mental state of the accused person at the time of the act that is alleged(pretins) to
constitute a crime. Crimes are classified by most legal systems for purposes such as determining
which court has authority to deal with the case. Social changes often result in the adoption of new
criminal laws and the obsolescence(uzur, desuetudine) of older ones.
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The purpose of punishing offenders has been debated for centuries. A variety of often
conflicting theories are held, and in practice each is followed to some extent. Prison is not the most
common penalty for crime-punishment may take other forms varying from capital punishment,
flogging(btaie), and mutilation of the body, fines, and even deferred sentences(sentine amnate)
that come into operation only if an offense is repeated within a specified time. Juveniles(minori) are
usually dealt with by courts set aside exclusively for the prosecution of young offenders.
The prison systems of most countries are subject to many problems, especially
overcrowding, but the recognition by some legal systems that prisoners have rights that the courts
can enforce has led to some improvements. The death penalty is now rare in Western countries,
although it has been reinstated in some parts of the United States after a period of disuse.
GOOD TO KNOW
There were many methods of punishment which were practised during the Medieval era of the Middle Ages: the compression of the
limbs by special instruments, or by ropes, injection of water, vinegar, or oil, into the body of the accused, application of hot pitch, and
starvation.
Conversation 3
So, what have you got for me?
Rolex watches. Two hundred of them.
Are they hot?
What do you think? Would I come to a fence like you with them if they weren't?
Leave them with me tonight and I'll give you a price for them in the morning.
Leave it out. Do I look like a mug?
Sorry?
I'm surprised at you, trying a scam like that. I wasn't born yesterday. I want a price now.
Conversation 4
At one time I had 50 people selling heroin in clubs around the city.
Really? Didn't you have any problem with the law?
No, they were all bent in those days. A bit of cash every month and they were happy.
So why did you open the supermarkets?
Originally it was a way to launder the drugs money. In the end it became more interesting to be
legitimate.
Definitions.
1 a buyer of
stolen
property
2 a lawyer
3 a person who
is easily
deceived
4 a prison guard
5 a trick
6 an informer
7 corrupt
8 in prison
9 stolen
10 the police
11 to arrest
12 to hold up, to
rob using
weapons
13 to inform
the police
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14 to transfer
illegally gained
money to a
normal bank
account
1.5. Check your knowledge of punishment and penalty vocabulary with this quiz.
1. Punish is the verb and punishment is the noun, but what is the adjective form of the
word? What are the verb and adjective forms of the noun penalty?
5. Some countries still have corporal punishment and some still have capital punishment.
What happens to the people who receive these punishments?
6. Rearrange the letters in bold to make words. The first and last letters of each word are in
the correct place:
If a defendant is found guilty of an offence in a court of law, he is convicted. If he is found
not guilty, he is acquitted.
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9. What's the difference between a custodial sentence, a suspended sentence and probation?
A custodial sentence is a judicial sentence, imposing a punishment (and hence the resulting
punishment itself) consisting of mandatory custody of the convict, either in prison or in some
other closed therapeutic or educational institution, such as a reformatory, (maximum
security) psychiatry or drug detoxification
Probation - the action of suspending the sentence of a convicted offender and giving the
offender freedom during good behavior under the supervision of a probation officer
10. A young man gets drunk and starts a fight in a bar, and as a result receives a banning order
from a magistrate. What is he not allowed to do?
Remand center is an institution to which accused persons are sent for detention while awaiting
12. What is the maximum penalty allowed for crime in the United Kingdom?
To imprison
14. A judge sends someone to prison for a period of 5 years, and tells him / her that by law
they cannot be released earlier. True or false: this is called a determinate sentence.
18. True or false: If someone receives a community service order, they have to go to prison.
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An injection / injunction / injury / injustice is a court order telling someone to stop
doing something, or not to do something.
21. What do we call money that is paid from one party to another to cover the cost of damage,
loss, injury or hardship? (Clue: it begins with c and ends with n) - compensation
1.6. Imagine that you are a member of the parole board. The prison is overcrowded and you
should release two of the convicts. Justify your choice.
Alan Jones: Guilty of murdering his wife by slowly poisoning her. Described by neighbours
as a kind and gentle person. His children love him. His wife had lots of affairs and pushed him to the
limit.
Janet Green: Found guilty of shoplifting for the tenth time. She is a homeless tramp who
likes to spend the winter in prison. It is early December and the weather is very cold.
Miranda Morgan: A drug addict guilty of selling heroin to teenagers. Has already tried two
unsuccessful drug treatment programmes. Has a two year old child who will have to go into care if
she goes to jail.
Mick Brown: Guilty of vandalism and football hooliganism.19 years old and below average
intelligence. Aggressive and gets violent when drunk. One previous offence for drunken and driving.
Cynthia Carter: English teacher guilty of smuggling her two cats into England. This is
against quarantine regulations. The customs officers would like an example to be made of her.
Case study
Law life situation and its solving:
BOY'S BODY FOUND IN CANAL
The body of a teenage rugby player has been recovered from a canal less than a
mile from his home. Police divers had been searching the canal on the outskirts of
Exeter, Devon. They found the body close to the Paddington-Penzance railway line.
Detectives believe that the victim, George Mortimer, was murdered. He had told a
schoolfriend that he had arranged to meet two men. George, 16, had left home with
an overnight bag and his parents were not surprised when he did not return home
that night. Two men, who were arrested more than 200 miles away, near
Manchester, were being questioned. George, who captained Exeter rugby club
youth team, wanted to pursue a sporting career.
1. Was justice done?
2. If you were the judge, what other facts and circumstances would you like to know?
3. Would you choose a lighter sentence, or a more severe one?
4. If you were a judge what sentence would you give to such kind of offender?
5. How would you have felt if you had been the victim of the crime?
6. How would you have felt if you had been the defendant?
Part II
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
C) CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: HISTORY
TASK 1- Match the following headings with the sections of the text below:
Effectiveness______
History______
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Moral aspect______
(1) Capital punishment is a legal infliction of the death penalty, in modern law, corporal punishment
in its most severe form. The usual alternative to the death penalty is long-term or life imprisonment.
The earliest historical records contain evidence of capital punishment. It was mentioned in the Code
of Hammurabi. The Bible prescribed death as the penalty for more than 30 different crimes, ranging
from murder to fornication The Draconian Code of ancient Greece imposed capital punishment for
every offence.
In England, during the reign of William the Conqueror, the death penalty was not used, although the
results of interrogation and torture were often fatal. By the end of the 15th century, English law
recognised six major crimes: treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape, and arson. By 1800, more than
200 capital crimes were recognised, and as a result, 1000 or more persons were sentenced to death
each year (although most sentences were commuted by royal pardon). In early American colonies
the death penalty was commonly authorized for a wide variety of crimes, blacks, whether slave or
free, were threatened with death for many crimes that were punished less severely when committed
by whites.
Efforts to abolish the death penalty did not gather momentum until the end of the 18th century. In
Europe, a short treatise, On Crimes and Punishments, by the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, inspired
influential thinkers such as the French philosopher Voltaire to oppose torture, flogging, and the death
penalty.
The abolition of capital punishment in England in November 1965 was welcomed by most people
with humane and progressive ideas. To them it seemed a departure from feudalism, from the cruel
pre-Christian spirit of revenge: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Many of these people think
differently now. Since the abolition of capital punishment, crime and especially murder has
been on increase throughout Britain Today, therefore, public opinion in Britain has changed people
who before, also in Parliament, stated that capital punishment was not a deterrent to murder for
there have always been murders in all countries with or without the law of execution now feel
that killing the assassin is the lesser of two evils. Capital punishment, they think, may not be the
ideal answer, but it is better than nothing, especially when, as in England, a sentence of life
imprisonment only lasts eight or nine years.
(2) The fundamental questions raised by the death penalty are whether it is an effective deterrent to
violent crime, and whether it is more effective than the alternative of long-term imprisonment.
DEFENDERS of the death penalty insist that because taking an offender's life is a more severe
punishment than any prison term, it must be the better deterrent. SUPPORTERS also argue that no
adequate deterrent in life imprisonment is effective for those already serving a life term who commit
murder while being in prison, and for revolutionaries, terrorists, traitors, and spies.
In the U.S. those who argue against the death penalty as a deterrent to crime cite the following: (1)
Adjacent states, in which one has a death penalty and the other does not, show no significant
differences in the murder rate; (2) states that use the death penalty seem to have a higher number of
homicides than states that do not , use it; (3) states that abolish and then reintroduce the death
penalty do not seem to show any significant change in the murder rate; (4) no change in the rate of
homicides in a given city or state seems to occur following an expository execution.
In the early 1970s, some published reports showed that each execution in the U.S. deterred eight or
more homicides, but subsequent research has discredited this finding. The current prevailing view
among criminologists is that no conclusive evidence exists to show that the death penalty is a more
effective deterrent to violent crime than long-term imprisonment.
(3) The classic moral arguments in favor of the death penalty have been biblical and call for
retribution. "Whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" has usually been
interpreted as a divine warrant for putting the murderer to death. "Let the punishment fit the crime"
is its secular counterpart; both statements imply that the murderer deserves to die. DEFENDERS of
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capital punishment have also claimed that society has the right to kill in defence of its members, just
as the individual may kill in self- defence, The analogy to self-defence, however, is somewhat
doubtful, as long as the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent to violent crimes has not
been proved.
The chief objection to capital punishment has been that it is always used unfairly, in at least three
major ways. First, women are rarely sentenced to death and executed, even though 20 per cent of all
homicides in recent years have been committed by women. Second, a disproportionate number of
non-whites are sentenced to death and executed. Third, poor and friendless defendants, those with
inexperienced or court-appointed attorney, are most likely to be sentenced to death and executed.
DEFENDERS of the death penalty, however, have insisted that, because none of the laws of capital
punishment causes sexist, racist, or class bias in its use, these kinds of discrimination are not a
sufficient reason for abolishing the death penalty. OPPONENTS have replied that the death penalty
can be the result of a mistake in practice and that it is impossible to administer fairly.
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First person executed Example of gas chamber
in the electric chair (Kemmler, New York)
Capital punishment used to be a major deterrent. It made the violent robber think
twice before pulling the trigger. It gave the cold-blooded poisoner something to ponder about while
he was shaking up or serving his arsenic cocktail. It prevented unarmed policemen from being
mowed down while pursuing their duty by killers armed with automatic weapons. Above all, it
protected the most vulnerable members of society, young children, from brutal sex-maniacs. It is
horrifying to think that the criminal can literally get away with murder. We all know that life
sentence does not mean what it says. After ten years or so of good conduct, the most desperate
villain is free to return to society where he will live very comfortably, thank you, on the proceeds of
his crime, or he will go on committing offences until he is caught again. People are always willing to
hold liberal views at the expense of others. It's always fashionable to pose as the defender of the
under-dog, so long as you, personally, remain unaffected. Did the defenders of crime, one wonders,
in their desire for fair-play, consult the victims before they suspended capital punishment? Hardly.
You see, they couldn't, because all the victims were dead.
WRITING: Write a composition in which you will plead for or against death penalty.
1.8. Give Romanian equivalents for the following general types of punishment. Put them in
descending order of severity.
Capital punishment
Community service
Disciplinary training in a detention centre
Fixed penalty fine
Life imprisonment
Probation
Short-term imprisonment
Suspended sentence
Long-term imprisonment
1.9. Give your counterarguments for the general ideas of the capital punishment opponents:
1. We shouldn't be blinded by emotional arguments: glorification of criminal on screen, etc.,
irrelevant.
2. What are the facts? In Britain capital crime has not increased since suspension of capital
punishment.
3. This has been proved many times in the past: relaxation of harsh laws has never led to increase in
crime.
4. Therefore the deterrent argument is absurd: capital punishment has never protected anyone
5. Those in favour of capital punishment are motivated only by desire for revenge and retaliation.
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6. There has been a marked trend in society towards the humane treatment of less fortunate
members.
7. Compare the treatment of the insane in the past with today.
8. Hanging, electric chairs, garroting, etc., are barbaric practices, unworthy of human beings.
9. Suspension of capital punishment is enlightened and civilised.
10. Capital punishment creates, it does not solve, problems.
11. Solution lies elsewhere: society is to blame.
12. Overcrowding, slums, poverty, broken homes: these are the factors that lead to crime.
13. Crime can only be drastically reduced by the elimination of social injustices not by creating
so-called deterrent' when the real problems remain unsolved.
1.10. Look at the picture of an American courtroom. Match the numbers in the picture with
the words below. Role-play a situation in the courtroom.
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ROLE-PLAY
A. The Lure of Shop-lifting
Act as a Police Officer who stops, searches, questions the offender and prepares a record of
the case for the magistrate's court.
Act as a Detained Person who is being questioned in police custody.