Unit 8. Crime and punishment

Introductory reading and talk

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority (via mechanisms such as legal systems) can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differently, in different localities (state, local, international), at different time stages of the so-called "crime" (planning, disclosure, supposedly intended, supposedly prepared, incomplete, complete or future proclaimed after the "crime").

While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as "offences" or as "infractions". Modern societies generally regard crimes as offences against the public or the state, as distinguished from torts (wrongs against private parties that can give rise to a civil cause of action).

When informal relationships and sanctions prove insufficient to establish and maintain a desired social order, a government or a state may impose more formalized or stricter systems of social control. With institutional and legal machinery at their disposal, agents of the State can compel populations to conform to codes and can opt to punish or attempt to reform those who do not conform.

Authorities employ various mechanisms to regulate (encouraging or discouraging) certain behaviors in general. Governing or administering agencies may for example codify rules into laws, police citizens and visitors to ensure that they comply with those laws, and implement other policies and practices which legislators or administrators have prescribed with the aim of discouraging or preventing crime. In addition, authorities provide remedies and sanctions, and collectively these constitute a criminal justice system. Legal sanctions vary widely in their severity, they may include (for example) incarceration of temporary character aimed at reforming the convict. Some jurisdictions have penal codes written to inflict permanent harsh punishments: legal mutilation, capital punishment or life without parole.

Usually a natural person perpetrates a crime, but legal persons may also commit crimes. Conversely, at least under U.S. Law, nonpersons such as animals cannot commit crimes.

The sociologist Richard Quinney has written about the relationship between society and crime. When Quinney states "crime is a social phenomenon" he envisages both how individuals conceive crime and how populations perceive it, based on societal norms.

Exercise 1. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following Russian words and phrases.

1. законодательная система; законы; признание подсудимого виновным; властные полномочия; преступление; предварительно подготовленный; нарушение договора; общественный контроль; предотвращение преступления; санкции; регулировать; законодательный механизм; правительство; гражданский закон; государство; правонарушение; проступок; население; наказывать; санкции.

2. законодатели; строгость; общественный порядок; смертная казнь; совершить преступление; применять; пожизненное заключение без права досрочного освобождения; нарушить уголовный закон; чиновники; представлять; воспринимать; уголовно-законодательная система; взаимоотношения; предписывать; нарушение правил; своды законов; полиция.

Exercise 2. Match the words with definitions.

1. witness	a. a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law
2. to call a witness	b. someone who has knowledge about an event, a crime, and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event.
3. courtroom	c. form of evidence that is obtained from a witness who makes a solemn statement or declaration of fact.
4. to prove	d. to catch somebody
5. to swear	e. the actual enclosed space in which a judge regularly holds court.
6.a lawyer	f. to assert something
7. evidence	g. a place where the crime was committed
8.a scene of the murder	h. to invite the witness to the court
9. to capture somebody	i. to give an oath
10. testimony	j. everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion

Exercise 3. Fill in the blanks with the corresponding word

The opening of the court; witnesses; produced as evidence; a witness for the defence; being cross-examined; be captured; courthouse; to testify; rewards; to confess.

1. Potter’s lawyer added that the skeleton of the cat would be … 2. Counsel for the defence rose and asked the Judge for permission to call Thomas Sawyer as …. 3. … had been offered, the country had been scoured, but no Indian Joe was found. 4. On Friday morning all the village flocked to… for it was the last day of the trial. 5. Then the Judge arrived, and … was proclaimed. 6. He…a trifle shyly that he had taken a dead cat with him to the graveyard. 7. But they were all allowed to leave the stand without … by Potter’s lawyer. 8. Several… testified to Potter’s guilty behavior when he had been brought to the scene of the murder. 9. Half the time Tom was afraid that Indian Joe would never…; the other half he was afraid he would be. 10. Now a witness was called who … that he had found Muff Potter washing in the brook at an early hour of the morning.

Exercise 4. Translate the sentences from Russian into English.

1. Государственные и местные газеты часто печатают статьи о судебных делах.

2. Приговоры и наказания различаются в зависимости от суда.

3. Защитник сказал, что она купила пистолет с намерением покончить жизнь самоубийством.

4. Судья знал о деле больше, чем обычный читатель газеты.

5. Два года назад два молодых человека решили ограбить молочный отдел.

6. Суд приговорил Льюиса к условному осуждению, чтобы он мог работать, содержать детей и заботиться о них.

7. Через несколько лет Питера выпустили досрочно.

8. Это больше гражданское дело, чем уголовное.

9. Казалось, что его обвинили в непреднамеренном убийстве несправедливо. 10. Говорят, что причиной для убийства на бытовой почве послужила ревность одного из супругов.

Exercise 5. Read and translate the text.