Comprehension

Task I. Answer the following questions on the text.

1. What kinds of punishment are available to the courts?

2. What is the most common punishment in civil cases?

3. Are fines used for criminal offences?

4. When are fines for criminal offences used?

5. What kind of punishment is community service?

6. What is the usual punishment for serious crimes?

7. What does suspended sentence mean?

8. What is the maximum length of sentence?

9. In what countries is corporal punishment used?

10. What is the ultimate penalty?

11. How can capital punishment be carried out?

12. Do all countries use death penalty?

Task II. Complete the following sentences using the components in brackets.

1. There are (несколько видов наказания) available to the courts.

2. In civil cases the most common punishment (является штрафование).

3. (Для уголовных правонарушений) fines are also used when the offence is not a very serious one.

4. Community service is another (вид наказания).

5. Community service requires (правонарушитель) to do a certain amount of unpaid work.

6. For more serious crimes the usual punishment is (тюремное заключение).

7. The maximum prison sentence is (пожизненное заключение).

8. Some prison sentences are (с отсрочкой в исполнении приговора).

9. In some countries there is also (телесное наказание).

10. The ultimate penalty is (смертная казнь).

11. The capital punishment is carried out by (повешение, электрический стул, газовую камеру) or lethal injection, beheading or shooting.

12. In 35 countries capital punishment (отменена).

13. Twenty seven countries no longer carry out executions even when (был вынесен смертный приговор).

Task III. Complete the following sentences.

1. There are several kinds of _____________.

2. In civil cases the most common punishment is ___________.

3. For criminal offences fines are also used when ______________.

4. Community service is another _______________.

5. Community service requires the offender to do _________.

6. For more serious crimes the usual punishment is __________.

7. The maximum prison sentence is ____________.

8. Some prison sentences are __________________.

9. In some countries there is also _________________.

10. The ultimate penalty is ___________________.

11. The capital punishment is carried out by ____________.

12. In 35 countries capital punishment ______________.

13. Twenty seven countries no longer _______________.

14. In Russia capital punishment _______________.

Task IV. Explain what the following means:

1. Community service.

2. A suspended sentence.

3. Life imprisonment.

4. Corporal punishment.

5. Capital punishment.

Task V. Give a summary of the text “Civil and Criminal Penalties”.

Reading and Speaking

Task I. Read the following text. While reading find answers to the question: “What is the purpose of punishment”.

The Purpose of State Punishment

What is the purpose of punishment? One purpose is obviously to reform the offender, to correct the offender’s moral attitudes and anti-social behaviour and to rehabilitate 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 deterrent because it warns other people of what will happen if they are tempted to break the law and so prevents them from doing so.

However, a third purpose of punishment lies, perhaps, in society’s desire for retribution, which basically means revenge. In other words, don’t we feel that a wrongdoer should suffer for his misdeeds?

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 crime doesn’t pay. For those who attack others corporal punishment 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 death penalty.

On the other hand, it is said that such views are unreasonable, cruel and barbaric and that we should show a more humane 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, law abiding life [3].

Task II. Mark the following sentences as True or False. Correct the false statements.

1. To reform the offender means to warn him of the danger of breaking the law.

2. To rehabilitate the offender means to take revenge on him.

3. Punishment as a deterrent means correcting the offender’s moral attitudes and antisocial behaviour.

4. Punishing the offenders society wants to take revenge on him.

5. To assist the offender to return to normal life means to rehabilitate him.

6. Some people believe that punishment should fit the crime.

7. Other people believe that “an eye for an eye principle” is cruel and barbaric.

Task III. Give your opinion on the purpose of punishment.

Task IV. Read the following text.