Unit 4. Crime and punishment

READING SKILLS.

Text 1. CRIMINAL LAW

Exercise 1. Read and translate the text using the essential vocabulary.

 

Essential Vocabulary

act	деяние
to act	вести
to smoke	курить
prescribed	предписанный
quite a lot	довольно-таки много
among	среди
which	который
a visitor	посетитель
foreign	иностранный
to steal	красть
to attack	нападать
to damage	повреждать, причинять ущерб
unlawful	незаконный
own	собственный
to own	владеть
elements of proof	состав преступления
legal system	правовая система
to prove	доказывать
to need	нуждаться
although=though	хотя, несмотря на
of course	разумеется
to help	помогать
to show	показывать
evidence	доказательство
innocence	невиновность
a codified system	правовая система
case law	прецедентное право
itself	само
state of mind	психическое состояние
a term	термин
Latin	латинский

 

Crime is a part of public law – the law regulating the relations between citizens and the state. Crimes are acts which the state considers to be wrong and which can be punished by the state. There are some acts which are crimes in one country but not in another. For example, it is a crime to drink alcohol in Saudi Arabia, but not in Egypt. It is a crime to smoke marijuana in England, but not (in prescribed places) in the Netherlands. It is a crime to have more than one wife at the same time in France. But not in Indonesia. In general, however, there is quite a lot of agreement among states as to which acts are criminal. A visitor to a foreign country can be sure that stealing, physically attacking someone or damaging their property will be unlawful. But the ways of dealing with people suspected of crime may be different from his own country.

Elements of proof.

In many legal systems it is an important principle that a person cannot be considered guilty of a crime until the state proves he committed it. The suspect himself need not prove anything, although he will of course help himself if he can show evidence of his innocence. The state must prove his guilt according to high standards and there are elements that must be proved. In codified systems, these elements are usually recorded in statutes. In common law systems, the elements of some crimes are detailed in statutes; others, known as “common law crimes”, are still described mostly in case law. There are usually two important elements to a crime: 1) the criminal act itself; and 2) the criminal state of mind of the person, when he committed the act. In Anglo-American law these are known by the Latin terms 1) Actus Reus and 2) Mens Rea.

 

Exercise 2. Match the phrases to their Russian equivalents.

 

1. to commit a crime	a. прецедентное право
2. damages	b. иметь дело с
3. evidence	c. общее право
4. legal	d. доказательства
5. robbery	e. отношения
6. to suspect	f. совершить преступление
7. to deal with	g. ущерб
8. common law	h. законный
9. relations	i. ограбление
10. case law	j. подозревать

 

 

Exercise 3. Finish the sentences according to the information from the text.

1. A person may be guilty of murder if he killed someone …

a. intentionally

b. having intended to injure him slightly

c. without caring about the danger of his action

2. The court must prove a person's quilt according to …

a. common sense

b. proof of crime elements recorded in statutes or codes

c. the suspect's proof of his innocence.

3. Different countries consider different acts as crimes, however…

a. some acts are referred to as crimes in most countries

b. b. stealing or physically attacking someone can't be considered as criminal acts.

c. the way of dealing with suspects is similar in most countries.

4. The suspect need not prove his innocence but …

a. he can help himself if he can provide the evidence of his innocence.

b. the state can still prove his quilt.

c. he can be considered guilty of a crime.

Exercise 4. Match the words with their definitions (there is one extra definition).

1. someone who steals a lot	a. the innocent
2. a document which is the source of elements of crime	b. a code
3. someone who is found not guilty	c. the suspect
4. someone who killed a person	d. a thief
5. a document which regulates legal behavior	e. a statute
6. someone who is suspected of a crime	f. a murderer
	g. the guilty

 

WRITING SKILLS.

Text 2. DEFENSES.

Exercise 1. Read the text and understand the main idea using the essential vocabulary.

Essential Vocabulary

to avoid	избегать
a reason	причина
to excuse	служить оправданием, оправдывать
to recognize	признавать, выделять
duress	принуждение
to force	заставлять
a threat	угроза
secondary party	соучастник
insanity	невменяемость
an opinion	мнение
because of	из-за
mental	психический
careful	тщательный, заботливый
a mental hospital	психиатрическая больница
to argue	спорить, возражать
responsible	ответственный
intoxicated	одурманенный, отравленный
drunk	пьяный
under the influence of drugs	под воздействием наркотических средств
purposely	умышленно, целенаправленно
consequently	следовательно, поэтому
nearly	почти
self-defense	самозащита
to convince	убеждать
to confuse	путать
mitigation	смягчение
harsh	суровый, жесткий
specific	особый

 

A defendant may avoid guilt if he can show he has a defense - a reason the court should excuse his act. Different systems of law recognize different and usually limited sets of defenses. For example, English law sometimes allows the defense of duress - being forced to commit a crime because of threats. Duress may be used as a defense for a secondary party (helping the murderer).

Another defense is that of insanity. In most countries a person cannot be found guilty of a crime if in a doctor's opinion he couldn't have been responsible for his actions because of mental illness. But this defense requires careful proof. If it is proven the defendant will not be sent to a prison, but instead to a mental hospital.

It might be argued that a person is not responsible for his actions if he is intoxicated - drunk or under the influence of drugs. In fact, an intoxicated person may not even know what he is doing. However, in Britain and many other countries, there is a general principle that people who purposely get themselves intoxicated must be responsible for their acts. Consequently, intoxication is not a defense.

Nearly every system of law recognizes the defense of self-defense. In England law, a defendant can avoid guilt for injuring someone if he can convince the court that the force he used was to protect himself.

The concept of defense should not be confused with mitigation - reasons your punishment should not be harsh. When the person has a defense, the court finds him not guilty. It is only after being found guilty that a defendant may try to mitigate his crimes by explaining the specific circumstances at the time of the crime.

Exercise 2. Write an essay on one of these topics:

- the defense of insanity

- self-defense

- defense and mitigation

A typical essay consists of three parts: introduction (what you are talking about, ask a question), main body (express your opinion), conclusion (sum up your thoughts).

Key phrases for introduction: In this essay, I am going to speak about/examine the ____; ___ is a very topical problem nowadays; there are a lot of different classifications of ___.

Key phrases for the main body: On the one hand; on the other hand; moreover; furthermore; for example; for instance; however; despite this; yet.

Key phrases for conclusion: To sum up; in conclusion; above all; to conclude; in general.

 

Exercise 3. Answer the following questions in writing.

1. What’s the difference between a defense and mitigation?

2. Can intoxication be a proper excuse? Why/why not?

3. How can the defendant avoid guilt?

4. What happens with the defendant if he's proven insane?

 

Exercise 4. Guess the terms by the given definitions:

… - the state of being forced to do something under the threats.

… - inability to be responsible for one's action because of mental illness.

… - being drunk or under the influence of drugs.

… - the act of injuring someone to protect oneself.

… - making punishment not so harsh

… - a court's reason to excuse a defendant's act.

Exercise 5. Write the opposites to these adjectives using the negative prefixes (ab, un, il, ir, im) and translate them:

responsible, different, legal, possible, normal, just, sane, limited, reasonable.

 

Exercise 6. Write out the odd word and give the written explanation of your choice

1. insanity, self-defense, duress, mitigation.

2. plaintiff, defendant, guilty, convicted.

3. to force, to threat, to make somebody do something, to deceive.

4. influence, effect, impact, recognition.

 

COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS.

Text 3. CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT

Exercise 1. Read the text and understand the main idea using the essential vocabulary.

Essential Vocabulary

to fight	бороться
a restriction	ограничение
retribution	наказание, возмездие
appropriate	соответствующий, надлежащий
previous	предыдущий
to take into account	принимать во внимание
strict	неукоснительный, строгий
relevant	существенный, уместный
gravity	тяжесть
just	справедливый
possibility	возможность
reformation	улучшение, исправление
a speech	речь
on behalf	от имени
deprivation of liberty	лишение свободы
imprisonment	тюремное заключение
life imprisonment	пожизненное заключение
exile	ссылка
public censure	общественное порицание
capital punishment	высшая мера наказания
death penalty	смертная казнь
exceptional	исключительный
a measure	мера
a list	список
expensive	дорогой
a work of art	произведение искусства
to fool	обмануть, одурачить
in return	в обмен
to threaten	угрожать
to break into	ворваться, проникнуть
vacation	отпуск, каникулы
to discover	обнаружить
a body	тело, труп
a basement	подвал
abandoned	заброшенный

 

Criminal punishment of persons who have committed crimes is one of the form of the state to fight against crime.

Any criminal punishment is always a restriction of the rights of convicted persons.

This restriction is a sort of retribution 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 defense lawyer may make a speech in mitigation on behalf of the offender.

There are the following basic penalties: deprivation of liberty, imprisonment for a certain period of time or life imprisonment, exile, fines or public censure.

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.

 

ROLE-PLAY 1. Work in pairs. Student A (the defendant) has committed an offense. Student B is a defense lawyer. Student B has to explain to his client what punishment he/she can receive and what defenses can be applied to these cases. Change roles.

Situation 1. The defendant made a perfect copy of an expensive work of art. It was so good that it could even fool an expert.

Situation 2. The defendant gave the man 50$ in return for a small packet of heroin.

Situation 3. The defendant threatened to send the love letters to the victim’s husband unless she gave him money.

Situation 4. The defendant broke into the house while the family was away on vacation.

 

ROLE-PLAY 2. Work in groups of four. Two of you are police officers. Others are people who discovered bodies in the basement of an abandoned house. Police officers have to prepare questions for people. Men should make up a story so that the police officers won't suspect them of murder.

Notes for police officers	Notes for the witnesses
- ask special questions (starting with who, when, where, what, why, which)	- use the words of uncertainty (possibly, perhaps, may/might be)
- don't push on witnesses	- stay calm
Suggested patterns: Start from the beginning, please. What happened next? What did you do? Did you take any measures?	Suggested patterns: At the beginning we… Then we saw/found/discovered… We were frightened/terrified/puzzled… Finally, we managed to…

 

TEXT BANK

LAW AND SOCIETY

It is obvious to everyone that, in а community such as the one in which we live, some kind оf law is necessary to prevent people from committing crimes. There was no law in a very primitive world, and, if а person chose to kill anyone, that was their own business and no one interfered officially.

But for а very long time now, members of every community have made laws for themselves in sеlf-protection. Otherwise, the stronger men could have done what they liked with the weaker ones.

If it were not for the law, you could not go out in broad daylight without the fear of being kidnapped, robbed or murdered. But law is not necessary just because there are bad people in the world. If we were all as good аs we ought to be, laws would still be necessary. If we never told lies, never took anything that didn't belong to us, never omitted to do anything that we ought to do and never did anything that we ought not to do, we should still require a set of rules of behavior to enable us to live in any kind of satisfactory state.

There must be laws, however good we may be. Every country tries, therefore, to provide laws which will help its people to live safely and as comfortable as possible. This is not an easy thing to do, and no country has been successful in producing laws which are entirely satisfactory. But imperfect laws are better than no laws at all.

 

CYBERCRIME

"There has been a noticeable increase in account takeovers. This can be directly related to the continued rise of the Zeus Trojan and other malware variants created to capture login credentials to financial websites/ These account takeovers result in fraudulent transfers from the victim's account to an account under the control of the perpetrator".

- Verizon's 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report

 

The Internet keeps growing. More people from around the world go online every day. People send e-mails, chat, use social media, play games, and have business with people on the other side of the world. And they also commit crimes.

In many ways, the Internet provides a perfect place to commit a crime. Criminal can remain anonymous and prey on victims far away. Police have no crime scene to search for clues and they may have to track criminals halfway around the world.

If police do manage to find the criminal, problems may arise. Although many traditional crimes like fraud and theft occur on the Internet, new crimes, exclusive to the Internet, also take place. The United States has developed laws against these crimes, but many places haven't.

An international treaty against cybercrime exist. In 2001, the Council of Europe, a group of European nations, created a Convention on Cybercrime. The convention does not make specific act against international law. Instead, it defines types of computer misconduct. Countries that sign and ratify the treaty agree to create national laws criminalizing this misconduct and to investigate these crimes. The council has invited all nations in the world to join the treaty. So far, more than 30 European nations have signed and ratified it. The United States is the only country outside of Europe that has ratified it and its laws criminalize the misconduct suggested by the treaty.

Many nations have not yet signed the treaty and have not enacted criminal; penalties for cybercrimes. Thus a person could work at a computer in a faraway place, hurt many people around the world, and that country may not even outlaw what the person did.

 

INCHOATE CRIMES

Inchoate, from the Latin word "inchoate", means incomplete, in the beginning stages.

The U.S. Code reads: "Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures it commission, is unfishable as a principal".

An accomplice is someone who aids another in committing a crime. The person may help before the crime, for example, by planning the crime. Or the person may help during the crime, for example, by driving the get-away car.

An accomplice is just as guilty of committing the crime as the principal, the person who actually carries out the crime.

Most states have adopted similar laws. The inchoate crime of accessory before the fact has disappeared in most states. But other inchoate crimes still exist.

Accessory after the fact is someone who helps a felon after the crime has been committed. Several thing must be proven for the crime of being an accessory after the fact. First, the defendant must help the criminal avoid getting caught or convicted. Second, the felony must have already been committed. Third, the defendant must know about the crime and intentionally help the criminal.

An attempt is an inchoate crime consisting of three elements. First, a person must intend to commit a crime. Second, the person must take steps toward committing the crime. Third, the person must not actually commit the crime.

The law of attempt rises many questions. One is how close the person must go toward committing the crime. The common law rule was that the person must have done everything he could to commit the crime. The reason the person did not commit the crime was out of control. Most courts today require quite less. Some ask: Would a reasonable person, seeing what the accused did, believe he was trying to commit a crime. Others require that the person took a "substantial step toward committing a crime".

Courts often look to the purpose of attempt laws when deciding difficult cases. The major purpose of attempt laws is to prevent crime. People disposed to commit crime pose a danger. Letting the police act before a crime is committed can prevent much arm. Punishing those who try to fail to commit a crime recognizes that these people have tried once and may try again.

In addition to attempt laws, most states have passed specific laws aimed at people preparing to commit crimes. For example, most states outlaw the possession of explosive device, burglary tools, and master keys to vehicles.

 

VICTIMS OF VIOLENT CRIMES

Violent crimes, such as murder, rape, robbery, and assault, are also known as crimes against the person. In these crimes, the criminal either uses force or threatens to use force against the victim.

The robbery victim. In a robbery, the criminal rakes property by force or by threat of force. In this scary crime, victims can lose their property, suffer injures, and even die. But statistically, the chances of being killed are small - almost 99,8 percent of all robbery victims survive. About one-third of all victims suffer injures, mostly minor. Only two percent receive wounds serious enough to sat overnight in a hospital. Strangely, victims are most likely to be hurt by unarmed robbers. Victims are most likely to be killed, however, by robbers armed with guns. Victims who resist are more likely to be injured or killed than those who don't.

The domestic violence victim. Typically, when people use the phrase "domestic violence", they refer to spousal abuse. But the terms has a broader definition that includes family violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and abuse by residents of the same household.

Much violent crimes take place at home and are committed by family members or inmates. Half of all 911 calls are related to domestic violence. In most cases, however, nobody call the police and the incident goes unreported. More than 1.3 million Americans suffer from intimate partner abuse each year, about 75 percent of those victims are women.

Helping victims. Legal codes provide compensation for crime victims. Cash payments aren't the only way victims cab be assisted. Government agencies and private organizations offer many other services such as shelters for battered women, rape counseling, crisis intervention programs, child-abuse intervention, and medical counseling.

 

CRIMINOLOGY

Criminology is a social science dealing with the nature, extent, and causes of crime; the characteristics of criminals and their organizations; the problems convicting offenders; the operation of prisons and other correctional institutions; the rehabilitation of convicts in and out of prison; and the prevention of crime.

The science of criminology has two basic objectives: to determine the causes of criminal behavior and to evolve valid principles for the social control of crime. In pursuing these objectives, criminology draws on the findings of biology, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, and related fields.

Criminology originated in the late 18th century when various movements began to question the humanity and efficiency of using punishment for retribution rather than deterrence and reform. There arose the classical school of criminology, which aimed to mitigate legal penalties and humanize penal institutions. During the 19th century the positivist school was established. They believed that criminals were shaped by their environments and emphasized rehabilitative measures. A later school, the 'social defense' movement, stressed the importance of balance between the rights of criminals and the rights of society.

Criminologists commonly use several research techniques. The collection and interpretation of statistics is generally the initial step in research. The case study, often used by psychologists, concentrates on an individual or a group. The typological method involves classifying offences, criminals, or criminal areas according to various criteria. Sociological research, which may involve many different techniques, is used to study groups, subcultures, and gangs as well as rates and kinds of crime within geographic areas.

Criminology has many practical applications. Its findings can give lawyers, judges, and prison officials a better understanding of criminals, which may lead to more effective treatment. Criminological research can be used by legislators and in the reform of laws and of penal institutions.

 

THE HISTORY OF PUNISHMENT

For the most part of the history punishment has been both painful and public in order to act as deterrent to others. Physical punishments and public humiliations were social events and they were carried out in towns, often on market days when the greater part of the population were present.

One of the most bizarre methods of execution was established in ancient Rome on people found guilty of murdering their fathers. They were put in a sack with a rooster, a viper, and a dog, then drowned along with the three animals. In ancient Greece the custom of allowing a condemned 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 adultery 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 by his ear.

The most common punishment for petty offences was the pillory. The offender 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 medieval Europe some methods of execution were deliberately drawn out to inflict maximum suffering. Felons were tied to a heavy wheel and rolled around the streets until they were crushed to death. Others were strangled, very slowly. One of the most terrible punishments was hanging and quartering. It remained a legal method of punishment in Britain until 1814. Beheading was normally reserved for people of high rank.