To avoid to force  to surrender to escape to threaten to warn

 

Yesterday, robbers ___________ an entry into the National Midland Bank in the High

Street soon after closing time. They __________ with guns the staff, and forced the

 

manager to give them $50,000 in cash. The robbers ran out of the bank and __________

in a stolen car, and were last seen going in the direction of the London Road. Police

___________ the public that these men are very dangerous, and are unlikely

___________, without a fight. Said Chief Inspector Ralph Smith: “We’re sure that

we'll catch them soon. They won’t ____________ punishment for it”.

 

5. Choose the best alternative to complete the following sentences.

 

1. A person who commits a criminal offence is called a criminal, or _________.

a) offender

b) citizen

 

c) witness

 

2. If you attack another person illegally you will be tried for unlawful ________.

a) damage

b) assault

c) action

 

3. If you physically hurt or injure the person you attack, you will be tried for unlawful assault causing ______________.

 

a) wounding

b) murder

c) infanticide

4. If the injury you cause in the attack is very serious it is called ________.

 

a) manslaughter

b) grievous bodily harm

c) assault and battery

 

5. A police officer can arrest __________ for a suspected crime carrying a maximum of five-year imprisonment.

 

a) by chance

 

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b) with an issued warrant

 

c) without a magistrates’ warrant

 

6. The law can punish criminals in many different ways, but the worst is _____.

a) fine

b) life imprisonment

c) death sentence

 

7. Young people who committed a crime are tried by a special court called ________.

a) the Juvenile Court

b) the High Court

c) the Crown Court

 

8. __________cannot be secured unless actus reus and mens rea were present.

a) an acquittal

b) a conviction

c) a discharge

 

9. Criminal offences may be broadly divided into _________________.

a) affect the secret of the state and road traffic offences

 

b) indictable and summary

c) inchoate and obstructing justice

 

10. The warrant must contain particulars of _________________.

a) the fatal offence

b) the non-arrestable offence

 

c) the alleged offence

 

6. Mark the statements which are true.

 

1) Criminal law covers a multitude of activities and sins.

2) The courts must respond to all forms of criminal activity.

 

3) The criminal behaviour is not seen as serious or deviant for the majority of society to ban it.

 

4) The police officer can arrest without a specific warrant for any suspected crime.

 

5) The defendant has failed to answer a summons and the magistrates decided to bring him before the court.

 

6) A conviction cannot be secured unless it is shown that actus reus and mens rea were present.

 

7) The burden of proof lies upon the Jury.

 

8) The way of classification of offences by the manner of trial is fatal and non-fatal offences.

 

9) Offences concerned with obstructing justice are: hijacking, treason, terrorism.

 

 

32

The Сauses of Сrime

 

Read the text and match the following headings with it:

 

^§ Psychological and psychiatric theories

^§ Biological theories

^§ Multiple causation theory

^§ Social environment theories

^§ Theological and ethical theories

^§ Climatic theory

 

(1) No one knows why crime occurs. The oldest theory, based on theology and ethics, is that criminals are perverse persons who deliberately commit crimes or who do so at the instigation of the devil or other evil spirits. Although this idea has been discarded by modern criminologists, it persists among uninformed people and provides the rationale for the harsh punishments still meted out to criminals in many parts of the world.

(2) Since the 18th century, various scientific theories have been advanced to explain crime. One of the first efforts to explain crime on scientific, rather than theological, grounds was made at the end of the 18th century by the German physician and anatomist Franz Joseph Gall, who tried to establish relationships between skull structure and criminal proclivities. This theory, popular during the 19^th century, is now discredited and has been abandoned. A more sophisticated theory ‒ a biological one ‒ was developed late in the 19th century by the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who asserted that crimes were committed by persons who are born with certain recognizable hereditary physical traits. Lombroso’s theory was disproved early in the 20th century by the British criminologist Charles Goring. Goring’s comparative study of jailed criminals and law-abiding persons established that so-called criminal types, with innate dispositions to crime, do not exist. Recent scientific studies have tended to confirm Goring’s findings. Some investigators still hold, however, that specific abnormalities of the brain and of the endocrine system contribute to a person’s inclination toward criminal activity.

(3) Another approach to an explanation of crime was initiated by the French political philosopher Montesquieu, who attempted to relate criminal behavior to natural, or physical environment. His successors have gathered evidence tending to show that crimes against person, such as homicide, are relatively more numerous in warm climates, whereas crimes against property, such as theft, are more frequent in colder regions. Other studies seem to indicate that the incidence of crime declines in direct ratio to drops in barometric pressure, to increased humidity, and to higher temperature.

(4) Many prominent criminologists of the 19^th century, particular those associated with the Socialist movement, attributed crime mainly to the influence of poverty. They pointed out that persons who are unable to provide adequately for themselves and their families through normal legal channels are frequently driven to theft, burglary,

 

33

prostitution, and other offences. The incidence of crime especially tends to rise in times of widespread unemployment. Present-day criminologists take a broader and deeper view; they place the blame for most crimes on the whole range of environmental conditions associated with poverty. The living conditions of the poor, particularly of those in slums, are characterized by overcrowding, lack of privacy, inadequate play space and recreational facilities, and poor sanitation. Such conditions engender feelings of deprivation and hopelessness and are conducive to crime as a means of escape. The feeling is encouraged by the example set by those who have escaped to what appears to be the better way of life made possible by crime. Some theorists relate the incidence of crime to the general state of a culture, especially the impact of economic crises, wars, and revolutions and the general sense of insecurity and up rootedness to which these forces give rise. As a society becomes more unsettled and its people more restless and fearful of the future, the crime rate tends to rise. This is particularly true of juvenile crime, as the experience of the United States since World War II has made evident.

 

(5) The final major group theories are psychological and psychiatric. Studies by such 20^th century investigators as the American criminologist Bernard Gluck and the British psychiatrist William Healy indicated that about one-fourth of a typical convict population is psychotic, neurotic, or emotionally unstable and another one-fourth is mentally deficient. These emotional and mental conditions do not automatically make people criminals, but do, it is believed, make them more prone to criminality. Recent studies of criminals have thrown further light on the kinds of emotional disturbances that may lead to criminal behavior.

(6) Since the mid-20^th century, the notion that crime can be explained by any single theory has fallen into disfavour among investigators. Instead, experts incline to so-called multiple factor, or multiple causation theories. They reason that crime springs from a multiplicity of conflicting and converging influences ‒ biological, psychological, cultural, economic and political. The multiple causation explanations seem more credible than the earlier, simpler theories. An understanding of the causes of crime is still elusive, however, because the interrelationship of causes is difficult to determine.

1. Find in the texts above the English equivalents for the following words and expressions and reproduce the context in which they were used:

 

1. кража

2. убийство

3. кража со взломом

4.сравнительный анализ преступников и законопослушных граждан

5. соотнести преступное поведение с факторами окружающей среды

 

6. преступления против человека

7. преступления против собственности

8. совершать преступления умышленно

9. некоторые узнаваемые наследуемые черты

10. выдающиеся ученые-криминологи

 

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11. ряд условий

 

12. уровень преступности

13. быть склонным к преступной деятельности

14. пролить свет на проблему

15. теория многообразия факторов

16. достоверная теория

 

2. Answer the following questions:

 

1. What ideas were the earliest criminological theories based on?

2. How did the biological theory develop?

3. What was Montesquieu’s approach to causes of crime?

4. What views on crime predominated in the 19th century?

 

5. How did criminological theories develop in the 20th century?

 

6. What is the relationship between the mental and emotional state of a person and his or her inclinations to crime?

 

 

Read the following text and translate it into Russian.

 

The Study of Crime

 

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

 

The science of criminology has two basic objectives: to determine the; causes, whether personal or social, of criminal behaviour 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 as a consequence what is called the classical school of criminology, which aimed to mitigate legal penalties and humanize penal institutions. During the 19th century the positivist school attempted to extend scientific neutrality to the understanding of crime. Because they held that criminals were shaped by their environment, positivists emphasized case studies and rehabilitative measures. A later school, the ‘social defence’ 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

 

35

in criminology 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.

 

1. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following:

 

- криминология рассматривает природу и причины преступлений

- изучение обстоятельств правонарушения по материалам дела

- криминология опирается на открытия других наук

- проблемы задержания преступников

 

- проблемы предотвращения преступлений

- применение на практике

- исправительные учреждения

- установить причины преступности

- выработать действующие принципы

- смягчить наказание

- подвергнуть сомнению

 

2. Replace the words and expressions in bold type with the words and expressions that mean the same:

· The objectives of criminology and criminalistics are rather different.

· The system of penal institutions is to be reformed.

· The scientific study of criminals originated in the late 18th century.

 

· Modern criminologists hold that criminals are shaped by a multiplicity of factors.

 

· Criminology studies the factors that lead to violent behaviour.

 

3. Match each word on the left with the appropriate definition on the right:

 

1) an arsonist	a) attacks and robs people, often in the street
2) a shop-lifter	b) sets fire to property illegally
3) a mugger	c) is anyone who breaks the law
4) an offender	d) breaks into houses or other buildings to steal
5) a vandal	e) steals from shops while acting as an ordinary
	customer
	36

6) a burglar	f) kills someone
7) a murderer	g) deliberately causes damage to property
8) a kidnapper	h) steals things from people’s pockets in crowded
	places
9) a pickpocket	i) gets secret information from another country
10) an accomplice	j) buys and sells drugs illegally
11) a drug dealer	k) takes away people by force and demands money
	for their return
12) a spy	1) helps a criminal in a criminal act
13) a terrorist	m) uses violence for political reasons
14) an assassin	n) causes damage or disturbance in public places
15) a hooligan	o) hides on a ship or plane to get a free journey
16) a stowaway	p) takes control of a plane by force and makes the
	pilot change course
17) a thief	q) murders for political reasons or a reward
18) a hijacker	r) is someone who steals
19) a forger	s) makes counterfeit (false) money or signatures
20) a robber	t) is a member of a criminal group
21) a smuggler	u) steals money, etc. by force from people or places
22) a traitor	v) marries illegally, being married already
23) a gangster	w) is a soldier who runs away from the army
24) a deserter	x) brings goods into a country illegally without
	paying tax
25) a bigamist	y) illegally carries drugs into another country
	37

26) drug smuggler

z) betrays his or her country to another state

 

JUST FOR FUN

 

Thieves respect property; they merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

 

G.K. Chesterton

 

 

Treatment of Criminals

 

Read the text and match the following headings with its sections:

 

^§ Rehabilitative programs

^§ Psychiatric and case-study methods

^§ Bentham approach

^§ Neoclassical school

^§ Preventive approach

 

(1) Various correctional approaches developed in the wake of causation theories. The old theological and moralistic theories encouraged punishment as retribution by society for evil. This attitude, indeed, still exists. The 19th-century British jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham a tried to make the punishment more precisely fit the crime. Bentham believed that pleasure could be measured against pain in all areas of human choice and conduct and that human happiness could be attained through such hedonic calculus. He argued that criminals would be deterred from crime if they knew, specifically, the suffering they would experience if caught. Bentham therefore urged definite, inflexible penalties for each class of crime; the pain of the penalty would outweigh only slightly the pleasure of success in crime; it would exceed it sufficiently to act as a deterrent, but not so much as to amount to wanton cruelty. This so-called calculus of pleasures and pains was based on psychological postulates no longer accepted.

(2) The Bentham approach was in part superseded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by a movement known as the neoclassical school. This school, rejecting fixed punishments, proposed that sentences vary with the particular circumstances of a crime, such as the age, intellectual level, and emotional state of the offender; the motives and other conditions that may have incited to crime; and the offender’s past record and chances of rehabilitation. The influence of the neoclassical school led to the development of such concepts as grades of crime and punishment, indeterminate sentences, and the limited responsibility of young or mentally deficient offenders.

(3) At about the same time, the so-called Italian school stressed measures for preventing crime rather than punishing it. Members of this school argued that individuals are shaped by forces beyond their control and therefore cannot be held fully

 

38

responsible for their crimes. They urged birth control, censorship of pornographic literature, and other actions designed to mitigate the influences contributing to crime. The Italian school has had a lasting influence on the thinking of present-day criminologists.

 

(4) The modem approach to the treatment of criminals owes most to psychiatric and case-study methods. Much continues to be learned from offenders who have been placed on probation or parole and whose behavior, both in and out of prison, has been studied intensively. The contemporary scientific attitude is that criminals are individual personalities and that their rehabilitation can be brought about only through individual treatment. Increased juvenile crime has aroused public concern and has stimulated study of the emotional disturbances that foster delinquency. This growing understanding of delinquency has contributed to the understanding of criminals of all ages.

(5) During recent years, crime has been under attack from many directions. The treatment and rehabilitation of criminals has improved in many areas. The emotional problems of convicts have been studied and efforts have been made to help such offenders. Much, however, remains to be done. Parole boards have engaged persons trained in psychology and social work to help convicts on parole or probation adjust to society. Various U.S. states have agencies with programs of reform and rehabilitation for both adult and juvenile offenders. Many communities have initiated concerted attacks on the conditions that breed crime. Criminologists recognize that both adult and juvenile crime stem chiefly from the breakdown of traditional social norms and controls, resulting from industrialization, urbanization, increasing physical and social mobility, and the effects of economic crises and wars. Most criminologists believe that effective crime prevention requires community agencies and programs to provide the guidance and control performed, ideally and traditionally, by the family and by the force of social custom. Although the crime rate has not drastically diminished as a result of these efforts, it is hoped that the extension and improvement of all valid approaches to prevention of prime eventually will reduce its incidence.

1. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following expressions:

 

1. бессмысленная жестокость

 

2. досрочное освобождение

3. общественные организации

4. ограниченная ответственность

5. освобождение на поруки

6. порождать преступление

7. преступления, совершенные несовершеннолетними

 

8. привлекать внимание общественности

9. совет по условно-досрочному освобождению

10. упадок традиционных общественных норм

 

2. Give Russian equivalents for the following general types of punishment. 39

 

· capital punishment

· community service

 

· disciplinary training in a detention centre

· fixed penalty fine

· life imprisonment

· probation

· short-term imprisonment

· suspended sentence

· long-term imprisonment

 

3. Study the following list of offences. Rate them on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 is a minor offence, 10 is a very serious crime). They are in no particular order. You don't have to apply your knowledge of existing laws ‒ your own opinion is necessary:

 

^£ driving in excess of the speed limit

^£ common assault (e.g. a fight in a disco-club)

^£ drinking and driving

^£ malicious wounding (e.g. stabbing someone in a fight)

^£ murdering a policeman during a robbery

^£ murdering a child

^£ causing death by dangerous driving

^£ smoking marijuana

^£ selling drugs (such as heroin)

^£ stealing £1,000 from a bank by fraud

^£ stealing £1,000 worth of goods from someone’s home

^£ rape

^£ grievous bodily harm (almost killing someone)

^£ shop-lifting

^£ stealing £1,000 from a bank by threatening someone with a gun

^£ possession of a gun without a licence

 

4. Study the authentic cases given below. Discuss each case in class and decide the following:

 

1. Was justice done?

2. If you were the judge, what other facts and circumstances would you like to know?

 

3. If you were the judge, would you give a different sentence?

4. Would you choose a lighter sentence, or a more severe one?

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?

 

40

Manslaughter

 

In 1981 Marianne Bachmeir, from Lubeck, West Germany, was in court watching the trial of Klaus Grabowski, who had murdered her 7 year old daughter. Grabowski had a history of attacking children. During the trial, Frau Bachmeir pulled a Beretta 22 pistol from her handbag and fired eight bullets, six of which hit Grabowski, killing him. The defence said she had bought the pistol with the intention of committing suicide, but when she saw Grabowski in court she drew the pistol and pulled the trigger. She was found not guilty of murder, but was given six years imprisonment for manslaughter. West German newspapers reflected the opinion of millions of Germans that she should have been freed, calling her ‘the avenging mother’.

 

Crime of Passion

 

Bernard Lewis, a thirty-six-old man, while preparing dinner became involved in an argument with his drunken wife. In a fit of a rage Lewis, using the kitchen knife with which he had been preparing the meal, stabbed and killed his wife. He immediately called for assistance, and readily confessed when the first patrolman appeared on the scene with the ambulance attendant. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The probation department’s investigation indicated that Lewis was a rigid individual who never drank, worked regularly, and had no previous criminal record. His thirty-year-old deceased wife, and mother of three children, was a ‘fine girl’ when sober but was frequently drunk and on a number of occasions when intoxicated had left their small children unattended. After due consideration of the background of the offence and especially of the plight of the three motherless youngsters, the judge placed Lewis on probation so that he could work, support and take care of the children. On probation Lewis adjusted well, worked regularly, appeared to be devoted to the children, and a few years later was discharged as ‘improved’ from probation.

 

Murder

 

In 1952 two youths in Mitcham, London, decided to rob a dairy. They were Christopher Craig, aged 16, and Derek William Bentley, 19. During the robbery they were disturbed by Sydney Miles, a policeman. Craig produced a gun and killed the policeman. At that time Britain still had the death penalty for certain types of murder, including murder during a robbery. Because Craig was under 18, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Bently who had never touched the gun, was over 18. He was hanged in 1953. The ease was quoted by opponents of capital punishment, which was abolished in 1965.

 

Assault

 

In 1976 a drunk walked into a supermarket. When the manager asked him to leave, the drunk assaulted him, knocking out a tooth. A policeman who arrived and tried to stop the fight had his jaw broken. The drunk was fined 10 pounds.

 

41

Shop-lifting

 

In June 1980 Lady Isabel Barnett, a well-known TV personality was convicted of stealing a tin of tuna fish and a carton of cream, total value 87p, from a small shop. The case was given enormous publicity. She was fined 75 pounds and had to pay 200 pounds towards the cost of the case. A few days later she killed herself.

 

Fraud

 

This is an example of a civil case rather than a criminal one. A man had taken out an insurance policy of 100,000 pounds on his life. The policy was due to expire at 3 o’clock on a certain day. The man was in serious financial difficulties, and at 2.30 on the expiry day he consulted his solicitor. He then went out and called a taxi. He asked the driver to make a note of the time, 2.50. He then shot himself. Suicide used not to cancel an insurance policy automatically. (It does nowadays.) The company refused to pay the man’s wife, and the courts supported them.

 

Read the following text, translate into Russian and try to summarize it.

 

Key vocabulary

 

imprisonment (n) –тюремное заключение primarily (adv)– главным образом

 

confinement (n) –лишение свободы,заключение под стражу convicted person –осужденный

 

transportation (n) –транспортация(ссылать за моря как вид уголовногонаказания)

 

abolition (n) –отмена

concern (n) –забота,беспокойство

predominantly (adv) –преимущественно

violence (n) –жестокость,насилие

 

Prisons

 

The idea of imprisonment as a form of punishment is relatively modern. Until the late 18th century, prisons were used primarily for the confinement of debtors who could not pay, of accused persons waiting to be tried, and of those convicted persons waiting for their sentences – death or transportation. Since the late 18th century, with the decline of capital punishment (death penalty), the prison has come to be used also as a place of punishment. With the abolition of transportation, the prison has become the principal sanction for most serious crimes.

 

Concern over prison conditions has not diminished over the years. Problems of security and the protection of prisoners from violence on the part of other prisoners have been compounded by the difficulties arising from overcrowding, as prison populations in most countries continue to grow. The people who make up the populations of most prison systems have many characteristics in common. The populations of most prison systems are predominantly male – in England males

 

42

outnumber females by 28 to 1 (although the number of women in prison is rising at a higher rate than the number of men) – and relatively young – nearly 70 percent of those in custody are under the age of 30. [To be in custody means to be kept in prison by the police until you go to court, because the police think you are guilty].

 

Most offenders in prison have a number of previous convictions; the offences they have committed are most commonly burglary, theft, violence, or robbery. A similar picture is revealed by U.S. statistics; the most common offences for which prisoners are in custody are burglary and robbery. [Burglary is the crime of getting into a building to steal things. Violence is behaviour that is intended to hurt other people physically. Robbery is the crime of stealing things from a bank, shop etc. especially using violence].

 

1. Translate the following words and expressions using the text above.

 

Тюремное заключение; тюремный надзиратель; содержащийся под стражей; лишение свободы; осужденный; обвиняемый; камера одиночного заключения; приговор; должник; судимость; ночная кража со взломом; грабеж с насилием или разбой; санкция; население; узник совести; правонарушители; безопасность; защита; насилие; виновный; общая камера.

 

Capital Punishment: History

 

Read the text about the history of capital punishment and translate it into Russian.

 

Capital punishments 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 recognized six major crimes: treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape, and arson. By 1800, more than 200 capital crimes were recognized; 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.

 

43

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.

 

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 the 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.

 

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 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

 

44

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.

 

1. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following words and expressions related to punishment:

 

- возмездие

- долгосрочное тюремное заключение

 

- допрос

- отбывать срок в тюрьме

- отмена смертной казни

- пожизненное тюремное заключение

- показательная казнь

- приговаривать к смерти

- пытка

 

- смягчать приговор

- телесные наказания

 

2. Answer the following questions:

 

1. Why was capital punishment imposed so frequently in ancient societies?

 

2. Why were blacks punished more severely than whites in early American colonies?

3. When did European thinkers begin considering the alternatives to death penalty?

 

4. How have the attitudes towards capital punishment changed in Britain since the abolition of death penalty in 1965?

 

5. Is imprisonment effective for revolutionaries and terrorists? Why?

6. How have Americans treated the problem of death penalty?

7. What factors may hamper the fair administration of justice in capital cases?

 

 

3. Continue the table below with the following words and expressions describing polar views:

 

FOR	AGAINST
Proponent	Opponent
To argue in favour of smth.	To argue against smth.
· con
	45

· objection to smth.

· defender

· pro

· supporter

· to accept smth.

· to admit smth.

· to agree to/with smth.

· to confirm smth.

· to consent to smth.

· to contradict to smth.

· to deny smth.

· to disagree with smth.

· to object to smth.

· to oppose smth.

 

· to reject smth.