Text 15. Young lawyers to get on-the-job training

Thousands of law students are to learn their trade “on the job” by working in a new network of free legal advice clinics and helping people with legal problems.

The initiative, which could see a radical change in the way in which lawyers are trained, is being launched by the College of Law, the largest training institution for lawyers in England and Wales. Trainee lawyers will “dirty their hands” by tackling real-life legal problems in the way that medical students deal with patients.

At present, the training of most lawyers is almost entirely academic and law firms say that they lack social and “lawyering” skills when they embark on their careers. The scheme will be backed by funding from big City law firms, which want to get rid of their “fat cat” image and to help students to receive a more practical training.

The venture will be build on the success of a free legal advice clinic set up in 1998 by the college in Chancery Lane, Central London. It is staffed by student barristers under barristers’ or college lecturers’ supervision. Between January and June 1999, students helped 6o members of the public with disputes about jobs, housing, small claims and negligence claims. Similar clinics are to be set up at College of Law branches in Guilford, Chester and York. The next stage is to create a national clinic advice centre, where university law schools can obtain advice and funding on how their students can obtain “on-the-job” training.

Unit 8 text 16. Criminal Behaviour

Studies to explain criminal behaviour have shown that no single factor or combination of factors always produces a criminal. In each case studied, a different set of circumstances led the person concerned into criminal action. But it has been found that certain conditions are more likely than others to encourage criminal behaviour, and such behaviour, like normal human behaviour, is the result of many forces acting within and outside the individual.

Some offenders may have been born mentally retarded and, because they are lacking in judgment, they may be easily persuaded into criminal activity if thrown into bad company. This is not the same thing as being insane, for insane people would not know what they are doing, or would not know that it was not wrong, or would not be able to control their actions. The question of when a person is legally sane or insane has not yet been settled. Lawyers and psychiatrists have different ideas as to when a person may be held responsible for his acts. A large group of criminals, once called psychopaths, are now called sociopaths. They do not lack intelligence and they cannot be considered insane by any present-day standards, but they do not recognize the rights of others. They show no remorse for their crimes and often no fear of punishment.

Home conditions and other experiences have a major influence on children’s behaviour. Bad home conditions and unhappy experiences are among the most common causes of criminal behaviour in children. Families, which are affected by death, desertion, divorce, or discord, tend to produce problem children and young people.

It also seems that criminal behaviour can be linked to social factors such as poverty and unemployment. In areas where unemployment is high and housing poor, more offences, such as street robberies, are committed than in prosperous areas.

Text 17. Purposes of Punishment

1. Deterrence (or prevention). If punishing one person is to deter others from committing the same crime, it is believed that the potential offender will act sensibly and avoid pain or loss in the future. He must also be capable of remembering past experience and understanding the results of his action.

Punishment to deter is not effective with people who are mentally disturbed and cannot think logically. Also punishment is only effective if a large proportion of the people committing crimes are caught. If people think they can get away with crime they will not be deterred.

2. Retribution (or “paying back”). Inflicting suffering in proportion to the harm or injury caused by a crime may work for something like theft where a person could be ordered to pay back the value of something stolen. If property is not involved, however, deciding on an equal measure of pain is very difficult. For example, what penalty can equal the harm caused in abusing the child? What punishment should be given if the abuser is mentally ill and needs treatment? Penalties in such cases are proportional to public outrage at the crime, not to the criminal harm itself.

3. Reformation or rehabilitation (changing a person’s behaviour). At times the infliction of punishment is explained as an effort “to bring someone to their senses”. This is sometimes known as the “short, sharp, shock” treatment and has at times been used with young first offenders in the belief that sudden, fairly harsh, treatment would make them realize the unacceptability of their behaviour.

The modern method of reform is to look at each person as an individual, and instead of making the punishment fit the crime, make it fit the offender. To do this it is necessary to find out why the crime was committed and how the offender can be helped to change his or her way of life. This may include medical treatment, physiological therapy, education and training, and help in starting a new way of life (collectively known as “rehabilitation”).

4. Showing public abhorrence or disgust. This is another reason for public punishment, to make the offender realize that he has not only hurt the person he may have robbed or attacked, but also offended society as a whole.

5. Protection of society. Some offenders are so dangerous that locking them up may be the only way to protect others until they can be shown to be no longer a threat to society. The length of imprisonment usually takes into account the number of crimes the offender has committed in the past. When a prisoner reforms, imprisonment to protect society should end. The death penalty is an extreme way of protecting society.