Selling and Buying Narcotic Drugs

Narcotics, when abused, can cause serious mental and physical harm. There exist laws, which make certain narcotic-related activities criminal offences. The activities include selling or offering to sell, possessing, transporting, administering (снабжать), or giving narcotics without a license, except by medical prescription.

Computer Crime

Society has only recently addressed the problems of crimes made possible by the computer revolution.

One problem involves the stealing of valuable information from other persons’ computers. Recall that larceny is «the wrongful taking of the personal property of others». This traditional definition of the crime made it difficult to prosecute those who steal computer data for two reasons. First, many courts concluded that there was not a «taking» if an intruder merely copied the information in the computer. Second, even if an intruder copied and erased computer information, some courts concluded that there was no taking of «personal property» but only the loss of electrical impulses, which no one really owns.

Vocabulary notes:

pilferage – мелкая кража	pickpocketing – карманная кража
passing bad checks – пускать в обращение фальшивые чеки	purse snatching – кража кошелька
vandalism – вандализм, варварство	to deprive - лишать
to exploit – использовать (в своих интересах), применять	false pretenses – обман, мошенничество
concealment - укрывательство	forgery - подделка
deceit – обман, намеренное введение в заблуждение; уловка, трюк; мошенническая проделка; лживость, хитрость	blackmail – шантаж, вымогательство
to cheat -обманывать	to threaten - угрожать
conspiracy – преступный сговор	intruder – человек, незаконно присваивающий чужое владение
extortion - вымогательство

II. Answer the following questions:

1. What are crimes against a person?

2. What are crimes against property?

3. What are crimes against the government and the administration of justice?

4. What are crimes against public peace and order?

5. What are crimes against consumers?

6. What are crimes against decency?

7. What is a felony? Give the examples of felonies.

8. What is an infraction? Give the examples of infrac­tions.

9. What is the punishment for infractions?

10. Give the examples of business related crimes.

 

III. Match the name of a criminal with the suitable definition of the offence:

1. a drug dealer	a. a member of a criminal group
2. a forger	b. a soldier who runs away from the army
3. a gangster	c. buys and sells drugs illegally
4. a smuggler	d. deliberately causes damage to property
5. a spy	e. helps a criminal in a criminal act
6. a terrorist	f. gets secret information from another country
7. a traitor	g. makes counterfeit (false) money or signatures
8. a vandal	h. uses violence for political reasons
9. an accomplice	i. a person who helps another person to do wrong

IV. Match the following terms with their definitions:

1. conspiracy	a. a punishable offense against society
2. crime	b. nonviolent crimes committed by generally respected persons
3. battery	c. crimes for which there may be no real victim
4. extortion	d. penalty imposed for committing a crime
5. false pretenses	e. punishment allowing liberty under court-ordered supervision
6. forgery	f. release from all punishment
7. immunity	g. buying known stolen property with the intent to deprive the rightful owner
8. juvenile delinquency	h. a threat which causes a well-founded fear of immediate bodily harm
9. pardon	i. freedom from prosecution
10. parole	j. early release of a prisoner with suspension of the remainder of the prisoner’s sentence
11. probation	k. violation by minors of criminal and other laws
12. punishment	l. making or materially altering any writing, with intent to defraud
13. receiving stolen goods	m. obtaining property by lying
14. victimless crimes	n. obtaining property wrongfully by force or fear
15. white-collar crimes	o. agreement to commit a crime

V. Translate into Russian:

1. Some crimes in which a business may be the victim are: robbery, burglary, shoplifting, employee pilfer­age, passing bad checks, vandalism, receiving stolen property, and embezzlement.

2. Some business related crimes are income tax evasion, consumer fraud, conspiring to fix prices, false adver­tising, embezzlement, and bribery. The offenses are often termed white-collar crimes because of the re­spected status of the criminals.

3. Victimless crimes include commercial gambling, ille­gal drug trafficking and prostitution. Despite the name of such crimes and the voluntary involvement of the parties, there are often victims in such crimes.

4. Anyone accused of committing a crime has certain constitutional rights including (a) no arrest without probable cause, (b) equal protection of the law, (c)due process, and (d) a speedy, public, fair trial.

5. Crimes are punished by fine, imprisonment, or both. Probation and parole are mild punishments because the criminals remain at liberty, subject to limited restraints on their actions.

UNIT 5

PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES (1)

TEXT 5A

I. Read and translate the text using the words and word combinations after it: