Crime and punishment

Against the law

If you do something illegal, or break the law, then you commit a crime. Most people commit a crime at some time in their lives, e.g. driving above the speed limit, parking illegally, stealing from a shop when they were children, etc.

A person who commits a crime is called an offender or a criminal.

Crimes

There are different types of crimes:

• crimes against a person (murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, blackmail, etc);

• crimes against property (robbery, shoplifting, hijacking, pick pocketing, arson, burglary, mugging, fraud, etc);

• crimes against the state and the administration of justice (treason, bribery, perjury, counterfeiting, smuggling, etc);

• crimes against public order (rioting, hooliganism, vandalism, drunk and disorderly conduct, speeding, etc);

• crimes against decency (bigamy, prostitution, sexual harassment, etc) and so on.

According to their seriousness crimes can be classified as felonies (crimes of a serious nature) and minor offences or misdemeanors (crimes of a less serious nature, punished by a fine or imprisonment for less than one year).

Let the punishment fit the crime

Punishment is a way in which the state punishes offenders, which means it makes them suffer for the wrong they have done. Punishment is provided by law and imposed by the court.

Different crimes are punished in different ways, so the convict may get:

- (fixed) penalty fine;

• community service;

• disciplinary training in a detention centre;

• short-term imprisonment;

• long-term imprisonment;

• life imprisonment;

• death penalty (capital punishment).

A court may impose and then suspend punishment (i.e. the criminal gets suspended sentence), subject to the good behaviour of the guilty, who may be placed on probation for a certain period of time. It is a type of punishment that allows the convict to avoid imprisonment and to stay at liberty under the supervision of a probation officer.

Sometimes a convict serving in prison may be released early on parole because of good behaviour and evidence of rehabilitation.

Pardon, by the governor or president, releases the convict from the entire punishment.

Task 1. Organize these words into three groups: crimes, people, places.

Murder, thief, prison, judge, robbery, burglar, cell, criminal, court, shoplifting, blackmail, lawyer, prisoner, kidnapping, convict, police station.

Task 2. Read the following texts and determine the crime they describe.

1. Last night in Windsor a man broke into a house and stole a mobile phone. Later he rang the owner offering to sell it half-price for two hundred pounds…

2. Yesterday morning at Burnham a young man tied up a bank manager and took thousands of pounds. The bank manager dialed nine, nine, nine with his tongue and called the police. The police later arrested the robber.

3. A thief walked into an electrical shop in Brighton and loaded a washing machine into his car. He calmly drove away. The man has been sent to prison for six months.

Task 3. Complete the table. Use a dictionary to help you.

Person	Verb	Crime
murderer thief ………. robber ………. ………. terrorist ………. ………. hijacker ………. ………. vandal ………. ……….	to kill, to murder to steal ………. ………. to shoplift ………. ………. to kidnap ………. ………. to sell drugs ………. ………. to smuggle ……….	murder theft burglary ………. ………. pick-pocketing ………. ………. hooliganism ………. ………. blackmail ………. ………. forgery