1.7. Crime and punishment

Task 1. Read the text and translate it in the written form.

Crime and punishment

Crime and criminals

"Two men apparently entered the bank, a number of shots were fired and a policeman was injured..." BBC news report

This is from a report of an armed robbery. A lot of the crimes reported in the media are dramatic — they involve shootings or bombings. In fact, most crime in Britain today is not against people, but property. Theft, handling stolen goods together with fraud, for­gery and drug-related crimes, account for about 94% of all crime. About 30% of all crimes are thefts of, or from, cars.

A recent survey in Britain's Guard­ian shows that crime is a successful business — the fourth most successful in Britain. Its turnover reaches $14 bln annually. Over 420,000 people make a living as criminals or in crime pre­vention — almost the same number as are employed in banking. A successful criminal can earn over $100,000 a year; this is four or five times as much as a police officer earns.

Is crime increasing?

Before 1920s, the police recorded fewer than 100,000 offences each year in England and Wales. By 2000 this number had reached 5.5 mln — and the number continues to rise.

There are many theories about why crime has increased since the 1970s. Duncan Campbell, Guardian crime reporter, thinks that as having material possessions became important in the 1980s, more people were willing to commit crimes to get them.

According to the Conservative Par­ty, one of the reasons crime has in­creased is that children are not brought up properly by their parents. The La­bour Party says crime has increased partly because poor people feel that they are treated badly by society.

Economic recession certainly con­tributes to the rise in crime. People unable to repay loans on their houses are trying certain types of mortgage fraud — such as borrowing money against the property which does not exist. Arson — deliberately burning something down — may be used in order to get money from insurance companies.

Crime exists throughout society

"Charlie Richardson, who used to run a gang of his own in south Lon­don found the City far more corrupt and dishonest..." Duncan Campbell

Crime exists on every social level, but more crimes are detected among less well-off members of society. At the same time a lot of financial crimes are being uncovered in the middle class.

In 1986 Ernest Saunders, chairman and chief executive of the Guinness Company, was trying desperately to make the company's share price rise. He encouraged friends and colleagues to buy large numbers of shares in re­turn for favours. More than 20% of Guinness share capital changed hands and the Guinness share price went up from £280 to £350. On 28 August 1990, Saunders was sentenced to five years in prison for theft and conspiracy to defraud.

Crime is international

One reason for crime going inter­national is drug trafficking. Reformers think the law should be changed and certain drugs should be decriminal­ized; they say this would put some of the drug traffickers out of business, but wouldn't cause an increase in the use of drugs.

Another problem nowadays is crime through the Internet. It can have differ­ent forms: stealing money from bank accounts and secret information, send­ing viruses, various forms of propagan­da etc. Certainly, the Internet provides the opportunity of freedom of speech and choice, but in some cases the infor­mation put there can break the law and human rights. So there should be some law about this problem.

From “Britain Now”

Task 2. Answer the questions on the text.

1. What sort of crime is more common in the UK nowadays?

2. What are the theories about why crime rate is increasing?

3. What is the worst criminal problem nowadays?

4. Do you think there can be some criminal problems concerning the Internet?

5. What can we do to beat the crime?

Task 3. Complete these word combinations according to the text.

• armed _______________

• economic _______________

• to make _______________ as a criminal

• social _______________

• material _______________

• to commit _______________

• _______________ members of society

• to _______________ loans

• to burn smth _______________

• _______________ companies

• in return for _______________

• drug _______________

• to put drug traffickers _______________

• to _______________some drugs

Task 4. Complete the sentences with a suitable form of a phrase from the list.

accuse smb (of smth)

appear in court

arrest smb (for smth)

commit (a crime)

face charges

find smb innocent

pay a fine

plead guilty

put smb on trial

return a verdict

suspect smb of smth

take up a case

1. The accused was ____________ and sentenced to five years in prison.

2. I'm ____________ tomorrow and the prosecution will be opposing bail.

3. The owners were ____________ of setting fire to their own premises.

4. He was made to ____________ of $30 for parking in the wrong place.

5. She was arrested and ____________ for murdering her husband.

6. The best lawyer ____________ her case and won it for her.

7. I'm ____________ you for the murder of your husband.

8. He was ____________ stealing money from the safe but they had no real evidence.

9. You'll be ____________ a number of serious charges when you go before the judge.

10. The jury ____________ of him not guilty.

11. You have ____________ a minor offence and I won't be too harsh with my sentence.

12. If you ____________, the judge will probably reduce the sentence.

Task 5. Put in the right preposition.

1. What is your attitude ____________ the problem of drug-trafficking?

2. All the sympathies of the jury were ____________ the defendant.

3. Finally the criminal was convicted ____________ an assault.

4. The detective took pains to extract information ____________ him.

5. After a long questioning the suspect confessed ____________ committing robbery.

Task 6. Fill in the correct word derived from the word in brackets.

Last night, Joe Bloggs was arrested on____________ (suspect) of robbery. The police had no____________ (prove) that he'd committed the crime and Joe denied the____________ (charge) saying he had a good alibi. When he was put on ____________ (try) the police called some witnesses but Joe's____________ (law) ____________(defense) his client well and tried to prove that Joe hadn't done anything ____________ (legal). However, the jury found Joe____________ (guilt) and he was sentenced to six months in prison. As he'd never committed a____________ (crimi­nal) before this was a very heavy____________ (punish). Most people were con­vinced of Joe's____________ (innocent) and his lawyer appealed against the verdict.

From: Luke Prodromou. Grammar and Vocabulary for FCE

Task 7. Translate the following text into English.

Однажды ночью мистер Джонс, убив свою жену, хоронил ее в саду. Его сосед, услышав шум, вышел и спросил мистера Джонса, что он де­лает.

— Просто хороню кошку, — ска­зал мистер Джонс.

— Забавное время для похорон кошки, — заметил сосед.

— Забавная кошка, — ответил мистер Джонс.

Всем понятно, что в таком об­ществе, как наше, необходим некий закон, который бы удерживал лю­дей, подобных мистеру Джонсу, от убийства своих жен. Когда челове­ческое сообщество находилось на примитивной стадии развития, та­кого закона не было, и если муж решал убить жену, а жена — мужа, это было их личным делом, и ник­то им не мешал.

Однако вот уже на протяжении долгого времени в целях самозащи­ты человечество использует закон.

Иначе сильнейший мог бы делать что угодно с тем, кто слабее его, а нехорошие люди объединились бы и не давали жизни окружающим. Если бы не закон, мы бы не могли выйти на улицу среди бела дня из-за страха быть похищенными, ог­рабленными или убитыми.

Нетрудно понять, что закон су­ществует не только потому, что на свете много нехороших людей. Даже если бы мы все были исключитель­но хорошими, закон все равно был бы нужен. Как бы, к примеру, мы бы ездили по дорогам, если бы не было правил дорожного движения? Без них много хороших людей мог­ло бы погибнуть.

Поэтому каждая страна пытает­ся принять законы, которые помог­ли бы гражданам жить как можно безопаснее и спокойнее. К сожале­нию, закон не может удовлетворить всех. Тем не менее, несовершенные законы все же лучше беззакония.

 VOCABULARY PRACTICE