5.Comment on the following quotations.

1. Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it. (H. Buckle)

2. If poverty is the mother of crimes, want of sense is the father. (J de la Bruyere)

3. Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man’s life. (D. Webster)

4. Many commit the same crimes with a very different result. One bears a cross for his crime, another a crown. (D. J. Juvenal)

5. One eyewitness is of more weight than ten hearers. (T. M. Plautus)

6. He who decides a case without hearing the other side, though he decides justly, cannot be considerate just. (L. A. Seneca)

7. It’s better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one. (F. M. A. Voltaire)

6. Use the following proverbs in situations of your own. Give Russian equivalents if possible.

1. He that once deceives is ever suspected.

2. Rather suffer an injustice than commit it.

3. A lawyer never goes to law himself.

4. Necessity knows no law.

5. Opportunity makes the thief.

6. The end justifies the means.

7. Solve the problems.

   1. Your mother is going to die unless you buy a very expensive medicine, which can save her life, but you can’t afford it. Would you rob the chemist’s shop to get it?

   2. There was a mass kidnapping at the airport. The kidnappers wanted a ransom and they shot a hostage every hour between 12 noon and 11 p. m. When the last hostage was shot, they vanished down the secret tunnel and got away. You are a police officer. What would you do?

   3. Having discovered that someone was regularly drinking his whisky, the man decided to put the poison into one of the bottles. Do you think he had the right to do that?

   4. Your brother is being looked for by the police. You are aware of it and you hid him in your house for a while. You know where he is now. Would you tell the truth when asked by the police?

   5. Your baby is kidnapped and you were asked a very large sum of money. What would you do?

8. What are the crimes described in these situations?

1. He threatened to send the love letters to her husband unless she gave him £ 500.

2. The telephone box had been smashed and there was graffiti all over the walls.

3. An old man has been attacked and robbed in a city street. He is recovering in hospital.

4. Department stores lose millions of pounds each year through goods being stolen off the shelves.

5. Thieves broke into the house while the family was away on holidays.

6. The young woman was sexually attacked as she walked across the dark park late at night.

7. He watched with satisfaction as the fire he lit burnt down the factory. “That’ll make them wish they’d never give me the sack”, he thought.

8. It was a perfect copy. It was so good, in fact, that it could even fool an expert.

9. The bank believed her to be trustworthy. They had no reason to suspect that she had transferred thousands of pounds to false accounts.

10. “If you want to see your child again, put £ 50,000 in an old suitcase and wait for further instructions”.

11. George gave the man £ 50 in return for a small packet of heroin.

12. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and people were sitting outside the café enjoying the sunshine. Then the bomb went off.

13. “If only I hadn’t brought these watches through customs”, she thought as she sat crying in the police station.

9. You are a judge. You must decide how long to send the accused to prison for. The minimum is three months. The maximum is a real life sentence. You can also acquit.

Case 1. The accused is a prisoner of war. Your country has just defeated his. He was a pilot. He dropped an atom bomb on your tenth largest city killing 200,000 people and injuring many more.

Case II. The accused is a doctor. He gave an overdose to an 85-year-old painter who had terminal cancer. The painter had asked for the overdose. The painter’s family accused the doctor of murder.

Case III. The accused found her husband in their bed with another woman. She took the breadknife and killed him.

Case IV. This man is a well-known leader of a radical organization. He was recently tried for possessing one marijuana cigarette and sentenced to ten years in prison. He is appealing the decision.

Case V. This factory owner is on trial for cruel and inhuman treatment. The workers in his factory had a sit-down strike to protest against low wages. The owner set rats loose in the factory. The workers killed all the rats and no one was hurt.

Case VI. The woman was given thalidomide while she was pregnant. She gave birth the baby without arms and legs. When it was two months old, she smoothed it while it was sleeping.

Case VII. The three teenage boys were having a fight with a fourth boy near the swimming-pool. They threw him in the water and then stood on him till he drowned.

Case VIII. A driver while speeding hit a cyclist off her bike. She was badly hurt and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. The driver didn’t stop so he’s charged with hit and run.

Case IX. A. and B. mug Mr. X , take his money and leave him for dead. B. later returns alone and pushes the body in the river. An autopsy reveals that the man was still just alive when pushed in the water and subsequently drowned.

10. Points to ponder.

1. Crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such.

2. Whoever profits by the crime is guilty of it.

3. Small crimes always precede great ones.

4. Petty laws breed great crimes.

5. Cruelty is part of nature, at least of human nature, but it is one thing that seems unnatural to us.

6. Suicide should not be considered a crime.

7. Violence is sometimes justified.

8. There is no justification for terrorism.

9. We should disobey a law that is contrary to our own beliefs.

10. Prostitution should be legalized.

11. Capital punishment is deterrent against crime.

12. Drugs should be legalized.

13. Ownership of firearms should be carefully regulated by the government.

14. Parents should be punished for child abuse.

11. Do some laboratory research and write an essay on one of the given topics.

    1. The stricter the punishment, the lesser the crime rate, or is it?

    2. Law is developing: it has no impunity in the course of time.

    3. What is the best way to combat juvenile delinquency? Historical survey.