Offences

1. murder 7. pickpocketing

2. hijacking an airplane 8. stealing sweets

3. kidnapping 9. making noise late at night

4. littering 10. being on a bus without a ticket

5. writing graffiti on 11. violent behaviour in a football stadium

a public building 12. toxic waste pollution

6. stealing a car

Punishment

1. to be sentenced to life imprisonment

2. to be sent to prison

3. to be fined a large/small amount of money

4. to be given a suspended sentence

5. to do community service

6. to be given a warning

Exercise 26. Fill in the missing word(s).

1. The arsonist had set fire to six homes before he was finally caught and s……… to fifteen years in prison.

2. “If you want me to keep my mouth shut, it’ll cost you ₤ 5,000,” he whispered. “Don’t try to b………. me!” she said.

3. Secret service agents quickly disarmed the men who had tried to a……… the country’s leader.

4. With dynamite strapped to his chest, he h………. the plane and ordered that it fly to his country.

5. The young boy tried to p…….. the old man’s p…….. but the security guard saw what he was doing.

6. The shop detective caught him s…….. and held him until the police arrived.

7. The museum was v………. by a gang of young boys who covered the walls with graffiti.

Exercise 27. Read and translate the text.

Classification of crimes What are crimes?

It is very important to know which acts are criminal.

Offenses Against Society

The most fundamental characteristic of a crime is that it is a punishable offense against society. Consequently, when a crime occurs, society, acting through such employees as the police and prosecutors, attempts to identify, arrest, prosecute, and punish the criminal.

Elements of Crimes

Before anyone can be convicted of a crime, three elements usually must be proved at the trial. They are:

1. a duty to do or not to do a certain thing,

2. a violation of the duty, and

3. criminal intent.

Duty. The duty to do or not to do a certain thing usually is described by statutes which pro­hibit certain conduct. Generally only conduct that is serious – involving violence or theft of property – is classified as an offense against society and therefore criminal.

Violation of the Duty. The breach of duty must also be proved in a criminal trial. This is the specific conduct by the defendant, which violates the duty. For example, battery is always a crime. Criminal battery is often defined in statutes as «the intentional causing of corporal harm». Corporal harm means bodily harm. A breach of this duty could be established in a trial by the tes­timony of a witness.

Criminal Intent. The third element, criminal intent, generally means that the defendant intended to commit the act and intended to do evil.

A few crimes do not require criminal intent. These are generally less serious crimes, for which a jail sentence is very unlikely. Traffic offenses fall within this classification. You may not have intended to speed or have intended evil but you have still committed this crime.

Today, statutes of most states fix the age of criminal liability at 18, but the figure ranges from 16 to 19. Statutes often provide that minors as young as 13 or 16 may be tried and punished as adults if they are accused of serious crimes such as murder. Generally, however, what is a crime for adults is juvenile delinquency for minors.

Ignorance or mistake is generally no excuse for violating a law. A person is presumed to know what the law is. To have criminal intent, one must have sufficient mental capacity at the time one commits a crime to know the difference between right and wrong and to be capable of deciding what to do. Accordingly, insane persons are not held liable for their criminal acts. Normally neither voluntary intoxication nor drug abuse is a good defense against a criminal charge.