2. Read and translate the following text. Types of Crimes

Crimes can be thought of as acts which the state considers to be wrong and which can be punished by law. There are acts which are crimes in one country but not in another. For example, it is a crime to drink alcohol in Saudi Arabia, but not in Egypt. It is a crime to smoke marijuana in England, but not (in prescribed places) in the Netherlands. However, there is quite a lot of agreement among states as to which acts are criminal.

In criminal laws offences are usually categorized into minor offence, or misdemeanor, and felony. Misdemeanor will usually bring you less than one year in prison, while felony is applied to serious offences punished by longer imprisonment.

Stealing appears in various forms: theft, robbery, burglary, shoplifting, mugging and pickpocketing. Make sure you know the difference between the verbs steal and rob. The object of the verb steal is the thing which is taken away, e.g. they stole my jewellery, whereas the object of the verb rob is the person or place from which things are stolen, e.g. I was robbed last night or a masked man robbed the bank. If the things stolen are not very valuable, the theft is called minor or petty theft. The theft is considered serious, or grand larceny when the things stolen are of considerable value equaling or exceeding a certain amount.

There are a number of types of killing or homicide. Murder is deliberate and unlawful killing of a person and assassination is killing for political reason. You can speak of reckless or unintentional homicide, trying to distinguish it from attempted, premeditated or first-degree murder. Even though manslaughter is killing of a person by someone who does not intend to kill, you have to bear in mind the difference between voluntary manslaughter, that is murder without premeditation, but not accidental (i.e. killing someone in anger), and involuntary, or accidental, manslaughter.

3. The table below gives the names of some types of crimes. Complete it with their definitions, the names of the persons who commit them and their associated verbs.

crime	definition	criminal	verb
arson	setting fire to sth in a criminal way	arsonist	to set fire to
assault		assailant, attacker
bigamy			to be married to two people at the same time
blackmail	threatening to make a dark secret public in order to get money
bribery and corruption		a person involved in bribery and corruption

burglary			to burgle
conspiracy			to conspire with sb/ against sth
drug trafficking			to traffic in
embezzlement	stealing money from the place where you work
espionage			to spy
forgery	trying to pass off a copy as the real thing
fraud		fraud
harassment	unpleasant and often threatening behaviour towards sb
hijacking			to hijack
joyriding		joyrider
kidnapping	taking a person hostage in exchange for money or other favours
libel			to libel
money laundering	moving money obtained illegally so that its origin cannot be traced
		mugger

murder
perjury			to commit perjury
pickpocketing		pickpocket
shoplifting
slander	making a false statement about sb that is intended to damage the good opinion
smuggling		smuggler
terrorism			to terrorise, to commit acts of terrorism
trespassing		trespasser
treason		traitor

1. Which of the crimes listed above can be regarded as misdemeanors?

2. Which of the crimes mentioned in the table might each of these people be charged with?

   1. A camper who spent a night on a farmer’s land without asking permission.

   2. A businessman who diverted funds from the account of the company he worked for into his personal account.

   3. Two boys who hot-wired a car and drove it around town before abandoning it.

   4. A witness who gave false evidence in court.

   5. A woman who tried to take a bathing suit out of a shop hiding it under her clothes.

   6. A man who wanted to sell an ‘old master’ which he had copied from the original.

   7. A passenger in the airport of Amsterdam whose luggage contained 2000 cigarettes.

   8. Three teenagers who robbed a passer-by in a dark street threatening him with a knife.

3) Give examples of some actions that can be regarded as crimes in one country but not in another.