Criminal Punishment

Criminal punishment is one of the form of state fight against crime. Any criminal punishment is always a restriction of the rights of convicted persons. This restriction is a sort of retribution for the crime. The court decides on the most appropriate sentence. The facts of the offence, the circumstances of the offence, previous convictions of a person are taken into account. The more serious an offence is, the stricter a penalty should be.

The responsibility of the court is to impose an exact and just punishment. There are the following basic penalties: deprivation of liberty – imprisonment for a certain period of time or life imprisonment – exile, fines or public censure, community service, driving ban, etc. . Capital punishment is used when an especially grave crime was committed. There are quite a lot of countries where death penalty is prohibited.

Task 1. Answer the following questions:

What is criminal punishment?
The court decides on the stricter penalty, doesn’t it?
What does court take into account?
What basic penalties are imposed by the court?
When is capital punishment used?

Task 2. Imagine that you are a member of a parole board. The prison is overcrowded and you’ll have to free two inmates. Give arguments.

a) Alan Jones: Guilty of murdering his wife by slowly poisoning her. Described by neighbors as a kind and gentle person. His children love him. His wife had lots of affairs and pushed him to the limits.

b) Janet Green: Found guilty of shoplifting for the tenth time. She is a homeless tramp who likes to spend the winter in prison. It is early December and the weather is very cold.

c) Miranda Morgan: A drug addict guilty of selling heroin to teenagers. Has already tried two unsuccessful drug treatment programmers. Has two year old child who will have to go into care if she goes to jail.

d) Mick Brown: Guilty of vandalism and football hooliganism. 19 years old and below average intelligence. Aggressive and gets violent when drunk. One previous offence for drunken driving.

e) Cynthia Carter: English teacher guilty of smuggling her two cats into England. This is against quarantine regulations. The customs officers would like an example to be made of her.

Text 2

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<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Crime. Causes of Crime	\|	Definition of a Contract

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