From the History of Punishment

f elons; offender; beheading; adultery; pillory; punishment; execution; deliberately; condemned; ancient; medieval; guilty; legal; public

F or the most history has been both painful and

in order to act as deterrent, to others. Physical punishments

and public humiliations were social events and carried out in most accessible parts of towns, often on market days when the greater part of the population were present. Justice had to be seen to be done.

One of the mast bizarre methods of was inflicted in

ancient Rome on people found of murdering their fathers.

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T heir punishment was to be put in a sack with a rooster, a viper, and a dog, then drowned along with the three animals.

In Greece

the custom of allowing a _ 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 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.

One of the most common punishments for petty offences was

the _t which stood in the main square of towns- The

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 Europe some methods of execution were

drawn out to inflict maximum suffering. 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. The victim was hanged, beheaded and the body cut into four pieces. It remained a

method of punishment in Britain until 1814.

was normally reserved for those of high rank. In England a block and axe was the common method but this was different from France and Germany where the victim kneeled and the head was taken off with a swing of the sword.

TASK 7'. Answer the following questions:

1. Why did ancient punishment have to be painful?

2. What was the purpose of making punishments public? j

3. What was the symbolic meaning of the punishment inflicted on the parents' murderers?

4. What punishments were most common in the East?

5. How did punishments reflect social status?

C hapter IL Crime and Punishment 47

I t's Interesting to Know Joseph Ignace Guillotin

A doctor and member of the French Legislative Assembly, he suggested the use of the guillotine for executions in 1789. A physician and humanitarian, Guillotine was disturbed by vulgarity of public executions and petitioned for a single method of capital punishment to be used for all crimes demanding the death sentence. The guillotine consists of a heavy blade with a diagonal edge, which falls between two upright posts to cut off the victim's head cleanly and quickly. Similar machines had been used in various other countries including Scotland and Italy. The main idea was to make execution as quick and painless as possible. The first person executed by guillotine was the highwayman Felletier in 1792, but the machine came into its own in 1793, during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution, when aristocrats were guillotined by the hundred. The device was nicknamed 'Madame Guillotine' after its sponsor

Charles Lynch

Captain Charles Lynch, of Virginia, author of the infamous lynch law, will forever be linked with 'vigilante justice*, Lynch decided that he and his neighbours were too far from lawmakers and sheriffs to punish properly the vandals and robbers terrorizing the rural area. He encouraged the fellow citizens to sign a declaration he drafted, announcing the intention to 'take matters in their own hands'. "If they (criminals) do not desist from their evil practices, we will inflict such corporal punishment on them, as to us shall seem adequate to the crime committed or the damage sustained.⁷'

Although the death penalty was not always exacted, in most cases the punishment turned out to be hanging. In addition to the fact that many innocent victims suffered lynching, a certain amount of guilt among the lynchers can be ascertained by the very technique for hanging criminals.

Lynch and his cohorts practiced a form of passive hanging. A rope was tied around a tree and the condemned man placed on a horse with the other side of the rope strung snugly around his neck, So the criminal was killed not by the captors tightening the noose, but the whim of the horse. When the horse moved far enough away from the tree, the rope choked the horseman.

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_{U NIT 5. THE PURPOSE OF STATE PUNISHMENT}

B RAINSTORM

How do you understand the purpose of State Punishment? In your opinion, how should State Punishment be organised?

T ASK 1. Explain the meaning of the words and expressions from the box. Complete the following text using these words and expressions:

w rongdoer; misdeeds; deterrent; retribution; death penalty; corporal punishment; rehabilitate; reform; barbaric; law-abiding; humane; crime doesn't pay

W hat is the purpose of punishment? One purpose is obviously

to the offender, to correct the offender's moral attitudes and

anti-social behaviour and to __^_ him or her, which means to assist the offender to return to normal life as a useful member of the community.

Punishment can also be seen as a because it warns other

people of what will happen if they are tempted to break the law and prevents them from doing so, However, the third purpose of punishment lies, perhaps, in society's desire for , which basically means revenge. In other words, don't we feel that a should suffer for his ?

The form of punishment should also be considered. On the one hand, some believe that we should "make the punishment fit the crime". Those who steal from others should be deprived of their own property to ensure that criminals are left in no doubt that '

. For those who attack others '■

should be used. Murderers should be subject to the principle "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" and automatically receive the .

On the other hand, it is said that such views are unreasonable,

cruel and and that we should show a more

attitude to punishment and try to understand why a person commits a crime and how society has failed to enable him to live a respectable, life.

Chapter II. Crime and Punishment 49

T ASK 2. Name the main purposes of State Punishment as mentioned in the text. Learn the text by heart.

UNIT 6. TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS

TASK 1. Match the following headings with the sections of the text below:

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 19^tb-century British jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham 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 calcuius. 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 19^th and early 20^lb 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.

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3. A t 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 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 crimmologists.

4. The modern 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 juvemle 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 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 recognise 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 crime eventually will reduce its incidence.

C hapter IL Crime and Punishment 51

T ASK 2. Write down the translation of the sentences from the text above given in bold type,

TASK 3. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following words and expressions:

1. бесадысленная 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

D ISCUSSION

Using the information and facts from the Unit discuss the following:

• Greater public understanding of the crime problem is important for the apprehension and conviction of criminals, their rehabilitation, and the prevention of crime.

• Awareness by the criminal of a high probability of arrest is the most effective deterrent to crime.

• The emotional problems of convicts should be given special consideration,

• Crime stems from the breakdown of traditional social norms.

• Family and social control are the most effective means of crime prevention.

• In recent years public has demanded longer and hasher sentences for offenders.

T ASK 4. Give Russian equivalents for the following general types of punishment. Put them in descending order of severity.

• Capital punishment ф Community service

• Disciplinary training in a detention centre

• Fixed penalty fine

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L ife imprisonment |

Probation i

Short-term imprisonment '[

Suspended sentence [

Long-term imprisonment j

TASK 5. 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 j crime). They are in no particular order. You don't have to apply your knowledge of existing laws — your own opinion \ is necessary: [

П driving in excess of the speed limit j

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

П drinking and driving

□ malicious wounding (e.g. stabbing someone in a fight) D murdering a policeman during a robbery

• murdering a child

• causing death by dangerous driving

• smoking marijuana

П selling drugs {such as heroin)

П stealing £1,000 from a bank by fraud

D stealing £1,000 worth of goods from someone's home

D rape

П grievous bodily harm (almost killing someone)

Q shop-lifting

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

a gun

D possession of a gun without a licence

TASK 6. Which of the sentences listed in Task 4 fit the offences in Task 5? Give your reasons,

TASK 7. 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?

Chapter II. Crime and Punishment 53