Victimless crimes

Many societies have outlawed actions on the basis of religion or morality. Sumptuary laws, for instance, are regulations that restrict extravagance in dress, food, drink, and household equipment. And acts such as the practice of adultery and homosexuality have frequently been deemed crimes. Gambling, too, is outlawed in many places. Even drug abuse the use of banned or controlled substances has sometimes been called a victimless crime because it, like gambling, involves no attack upon either persons or property.

The term victimless crimes, however, is somewhat inaccurate. Gambling and drug abuse, like alcoholism, are now considered addictions. The person involved victimizes himself as well as his family and friends by his uncontrolled habit. Overcoming these addictions usually requires some type of therapy.

White-collar crime

White-collar crime refers to violations of law by persons who use their jobs to engage in illegal activities. Embezzlement is a typical white-collar crime.

Such violations usually involve fraud, swindle, tax cheating, and other duplicity in financial dealings.

The amount of white-collar crime has grown in advanced nations to the extent that it is one of the costliest crimes in society. Billions of dollars a year are misappropriated through various kinds of swindles far more than in the more conventional crimes of larceny, burglary, forgery, auto theft, and robbery.

Organized crime

Organized crime is one of the largest business enterprises in the advanced industrial societies. While the United Slates has long been deemed the center of organized crime, such activities also flourish in Canada, Japan, France, Great Britain, and other places with prosperous economies. Such profitable endeavors as gambling, drug trafficking, bookmaking, loan sharking, prostitution, protection schemes, labor racketeering, and the numbers racket have long been controlled by various organized crime factions. Most of these activities are local or national in scope, but the increasing use of drugs since 1965 has led to the establishment of international networks of crime in order to move drugs from one country to another, to process them, and to distribute the billions of dollars in profits that result from their sale.

Computer crime

Computer crime is a way to commit crime, not a type of crime. By the mid-1980s computers were in use in nearly every kind of commercial, financial, and industrial enterprise. As record-keeping devices computers are unsurpassed in the amount of information that can be kept on a readily available file. Credit-card companies, banks, savings and loan associations, insurance companies, credit bureaus, and many other institutions keep computerized customer files. This information is for the private and confidential use of the customer and the institution.

Access to such confidential information, as well as to the more complex computer systems operated by government agencies, has been gained by computer experts, often with the intent to defraud or embezzle. Someone working within a bank or other financial organization may easily gain access to the company’s computers to transfer funds to his own or a friend's account or to another bank.

Owners of personal home computers, too, have found ways to break into company computer systems. To accomplish a break-in of this kind, a computer operator needs a modem, a device that will connect his computer by telephone to another computer system. He also needs to know how to access another system through its code. For the average person, this would be a very difficult task; but for someone well-versed in computer logic, it has proved relatively easy. According to an American Bar Association report in 1984, billions of dollars are being lost through computer theft each year.

In each group of words find an odd one not belonging to a certain type of offences. Name each type of offence and explain your choice.

1. gambling — drug trafficking — tax cheating — bookmaking

2. mayhem — battery — sedition — kidnapping;

3. slander — libel — racketeering — medical malpractice

4. trespass — fraud — swindle — tax cheating

5. embezzlement — treason — coup — rebellion

6. disorderly conduct — mayhem — public drunkenness — driving violations

Explain the meaning of the following offences:

malpractice	negligent homicide
felony	mercy killing
misdemeanor	accessory after (before) the fact
petty offense	drug abuse
disorderly conduct	addiction (an addict)
indictable offenses	drug trafficking
premeditated murder	loan sharking

Ex.9. Below are words denoting different types of legal offences. Match the words in the left hand column with their definitions.

arson, assault, battery, bigamy, burglary, conversion, coup, libel, robbery, manslaughter, perjury, rape, slander, treason, trespass, theft, sedition, forgery

1. A sudden action against the government to force it to be changed.

2. The offence of using force against any person, or putting them in fear of being subjected to force, in order to commit a theft.

3. The offence of giving false evidence.

4. A defamatory statement made in permanent form, such as writing, film, television or other public performance.

5. Sexual intercourse with another person without his/her consent.

6. The intentional or reckless destruction or damage of property by fire without the lawful excuse.

7. A defamatory statement made by such means as words or gestures not in permanent form.

8. An intentional or reckless act that causes someone to be put in fear of immediate physical harm.

9. Conduct comprising a breach of allegiance to the state.

10. A wrongful direct interference with another person or with his property without his consent.

11. The offence of making a “false instrument” in order that it may be accepted as genuine, causing harm to others.

12. Dishonestly taking something which belongs to someone else and keeping it; stealing.

13. The act of going through a marriage ceremony with someone when one is already lawfully married to someone else.

14. The tort of wrongfully dealing with a person’s goods that constitutes the denial of the owner’s rights.

15. Speaking or writing of words that are likely to incite ordinary people to public disorder or insurrection.

16. Homicide that does not amount to the crime of murder but is still neither lawful nor accidental.

17. Crime of illegally entering a place and stealing things.

18. The intentional or reckless application of physical force to someone without his consent.

Ex. 10. Match each person in the box with the description given below.

forger, hooligan, murderer, shoplifter, vandal, burglar, hijacker, pickpocket, smuggler, witness

1. This person takes control of a plane or boat by force ______.

2. This person sees what happens during a crime or accident. ______

3. This person brings goods into the country illegally. ______

4. This person might steal food from a supermarket. ______

5. This person kills someone on purpose. ______

6. This person makes illegal copies of paintings, documents etc. ______

7. This person damages other people’s property. ______

8. This person might steal your wallet in a crowd. ______

9. This person steals from houses. ______

10. This person causes trouble at football matches. ______

Ex. 11. Fill in the gaps with the necessary words from the box.

vagrancy, assassination, smuggling, highjack, embezzling, libel, blackmail, manslaughter, trespass, arson, theft, bigamy, kidnap, perjury

1. If your passport has been stolen, report the ______ to your nearest embassy immediately.

2. He was arrested in connection with drug ______.

3. The recent series of airplane ______.

4. Flowers were laid to commemorate the anniversary of ______ of John Lennon.

5. “If you don’t give me the money, I’m going to tell your wife.” “This is ______!”

6. Two managers were charged with ______ $400,000 over a ten-year period.

7. This ______ meant that no one must go inside the property because it was not public like a park, but private.

8. Holt sued the newspaper for ______.

9. The driver of the train was charged with the ______ of 13 people.

10. Do you realise that by lying to the court you have committed ______?

11. Police are treating the fire as a case of ______.

12. The growing numbers of the poor were reflected in begging, ______ and theft, all of which led to repressive reactions.

13. Green, who has five wives and 30 children, had been charged with four counts of ______.

14. Terrorists have ______ a French officer and are demanding $400,000 from the French government.

Ex. 12. What crimes are described in the following sentences?

1. The crime of being disloyal to your country or its government, especially by helping its enemies.

2. To take someone somewhere illegally by force, often in order to get money for returning them.

3. The act of murdering an important person.

4. When someone tries to get money from you or make you do what they want by threatening to tell other people your secrets.

5. The crime of being married to two people at the same time.

6. Disobedience or disrespect towards a court of law.

7. The act of leaving the army, navy etc without permission.

8. The criminal offence of living on the street and begging from people.

9. The crime of taking something illegally from one country to another.

10. When people risk money or possessions on the result of something which is not certain, such as a card game or a horse race.

11. An attack on someone in which they are robbed in a public place.

12. To steal money from the place where you work.

13. The crime of killing someone illegally but not deliberately.

14. The crime of threatening to attack someone physically and then attacking them.

15. An organized attempt to change the government or leader of a country, using violence.

16. Speech, writing, or actions intended to encourage people to disobey a government.

17. The crime of deliberately making something burn, especially a building.

18. The act or crime of stealing.

19. To go onto someone’s private land without their permission.

20. When someone writes or prints untrue statements about someone so that other people could have a bad opinion of them.

21. The crime of killing a child.

22. The crime of stealing money or things from a bank, shop etc, especially using violence.

Ex. 13. There are words denoting types of crimes in the box. Choose the suitable word for each definition. Mind that there are odd words in the box. Give Russian equivalents for the described crimes and classify each crime as violent or non-violent.

armed robbery, blackmail, vagrancy, arson, fraud, murder, speeding, shoplifting, burglary, assault, libel, theft, treason, sexual assault, assassination, money laundering, perjury, homicide, bigamy, drug dealing, forgery, parking, smuggling, battery, embezzlement, gambling, extortion, manslaughter

1. A generic term for the killing of another person.

2. Any instance in which one party deceives or takes unfair advantage of another.

3. Attempt to use illegal force on another person.

4. Attempt to use illegal force on another person in the absence of consent to sexual relations.

5. Attempt to transform illegally acquired money into apparently legitimate money.

6. Driving a vehicle in excess of the permitted limit.

7. Leaving one’s vehicle in an area or for a duration in contravention of the law.

8. Possession of and/or trading in illegal substances.

9. Taking the property of another without right or permission.

10. The actual use of illegal force on another person.

11. The crime of breaking into a private home with the intention of committing a felony.

12. The unlawful killing of a person with intent.

13. The unlawful killing of a person without malicious intent and therefore without premeditation.

14. The unlawful taking of another’s property using a dangerous weapon.

15. Setting fire to a building.

16. Going through a ceremony of marriage when you are still married to someone else.

17. Killing a public figure illegally and intentionally.

18. Getting money from people by using threats.

19. Telling lies when you have sworn an oath to say what is true in court.

20. Betraying your country to a foreign power.

21. Making an illegal copy of a banknote or document.

22. Using illegally or stealing money which you are looking after for someone else.

23. Taking goods illegally into or out of a country.

24. Getting money from people by threatening to publicise facts they do not want revealed.

25. Writing, publishing or broadcasting a statement which damages someone’s character.

Ex. 14. Here is the story of a very unfortunate, irresponsible man called Mr N. E. Body. Imagine that he was stopped by the police at each and every point of the drama. Read about what happened and, after each piece of information you receive, decide what punishment he deserves.

Here are some of the sentences you might wish to hand out:

You might feel the ¹⁾ death penalty is in order, or ²⁾ life imprisonment, even ³⁾ solitary confinement. You could put him ⁴⁾ on probation, give him ⁵⁾ community service or ⁶⁾ impose a fine — anything from $10 to $ 1,000. You might consider ⁷⁾ corporal punishment (a short, sharp shock), a shortish ⁸⁾ prison sentence or, of course, you could make that a ⁹⁾ suspended sentence. You might make him pay ¹⁰⁾ compensation, or would you like to see him ¹¹⁾ banned from driving? No? Well, his ¹²⁾ licence could be endorsed. Or would you ¹³⁾ dismiss the case, ¹⁴⁾ find him not guilty of any crime, ¹⁵⁾ acquit him, find the case ¹⁶⁾ not proved?

1. Mr Body drank five pints of beer and five single whiskies in a pub, got into his car and drove away.

2. He did not drive dangerously but exceeded the speed limit as he wanted to catch up with a friend who had left the wallet in the pub.

3. As he was driving along, a little girl ran into the road and he knocked her down.

4. There was no way he could have stopped, drunk or sober.

5. The little girl suffered only bruises and superficial injuries.

6. Mr Body’s wife had left him two days ago.

7. Six months later, it was clear that the little girl was to suffer from after-effects of the accident and would stutter for many years.

8. Mr Body had never previously received any summons for traffic offences.

9. The little girl admitted that it was her fault.

10. The passenger in Mr Body’s car was killed outright as he went through the windscreen.

Ex. 15. Below are 10 statements by defendants. Read the statements and say what crime has each one been accused of.

1. “I arrived home late and found that I’d forgotten my keys. I didn’t want to wake my wife up, and I saw there was a ladder in the garden of the house next door. I got the ladder and climbed in. We’ve just moved house and I didn’t realize I was in the wrong street ...”

2. “I was walking my dog when I saw the gun lying on the ground. I picked it up — it was still warm — and at that moment I saw the body lying in the long grass. I went across to look and it was my business partner. That’s when the police arrived ...”

3. “I opened the bank account in a false name as a way to help my employer pay less tax. It’s perfectly legal. I kept meaning to tell him, but somehow I just forgot. I bought the villa in France with my own money. It was an inheritance ...”

4. “Ok, so there are a hundred and twenty-three copies of Four Weddings and a Funeral. That’s perfectly true, but I had no intention of selling them. I'm a collector.”

5. “Well this obviously isn’t my suitcase. I’ve never seen this things before in my life. The monogram? Well, they are my initials, but that must be a coincidence. That’s probably how the two cases got mixed up. After all, JA aren’t very unusual initials. A photograph with me in it? My word, That’s incredible! It must be someone who knows me ...”

6. “I didn’t know she was still alive, I thought she’d died in a car accident. I couldn't believe it when I saw her walk into the room. Surely you don’t think I did this just to get your money ...?”

7. “You misunderstand me. When I offered him the money I meant it as a gift. I know that life can be difficult for a young man on a police salary, especially if he has a family, young children etcetera. It isn’t easy and I know that. I just wanted to help. I didn’t expect him to do anything in return ...”

8. “After leaving the office I realized I’d forgotten my umbrella. I went back in to get back it. When I went in I noticed that the photocopier was still turned on. It had been working very badly all day, and I decided to quickly see what was wrong with it before going home. I made a few test copies of documents that were in office. I didn't ever look at what I was copying. The machine seemed to be working much better. I put the copies in my briefcase — intending to use the other side as notepaper. I don’t believe in wasting paper. At that moment Mr Sanders came out of his office ...”

9. “I painted them for pleasure. I had no intention of deceiving people. I never said they where by other people. Yes, I did include the signatures of other artists but that's because I wanted them to be perfect copies ...”

10. “Mr Wills sent me the money to help me in my business venture — I’m trying to start a design agency. He sent me cheques every month for $ 1200. A couple of times he sent extra when I had special expenses. It was always understood that he would participate in the profits of the business when it was running. We didn’t write anything down, it was an oral agreement. The photographs I have of him with his secretary have no connection with these payments.”

Ex. 16. Translate into English using words and word combinations from your active vocabulary:

1. Суд признал его соучастником преступления, укрывавшим преступника.

2. Его осудили за незаконное присвоение имущества.

3. Это классифицируется как незаконное проникновение в чужое помещение.

4. Физическое насилие при отягчающих обстоятельствах карается длительным сроком.

5. Прокурор требовал осудить обвиняемого за преднамеренное убийство, но присяжные отклонили обвинение и признали судебный случай самозащитой.

6. Из-за медицинской халатности она стала инвалидом.

7. Общественность возмущена хладнокровным убийством адвоката.

8. Был предотвращен преступный заговор с целью совершения политического убийства.

9. Их задержали за нарушение общественного порядка.

10. К сожалению, растет уровень подростковой преступности.

11. Это было хладнокровное убийство с целью устранения конкурента по бизнесу.

12. В большинстве стран торговля наркотиками преследуется законом.