CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES

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

What is the purpose of punishment? One purpose is obviously to reform the offender, to correct the offender's moral attitudes and anti-social behaviour and to rehabilitate him or her, which means to assist the offender to return to normal life as a useful member of the community.

Punishment can also be seen as a deterrent because it warns other people of what will happen if they are tempted to break the law and prevents them from doing so. However, the third purpose of punishment lies, perhaps, in society’s desire for retribution, which basically means revenge. In other words, don't we feel that a wrongdoer should suffer for his misdeeds?

The form of punishment should also be considered. On the one hand, some believe that we should “make the punishment fit the crime”. Those who steal from others should be deprived of their own property to ensure that criminals are left in no doubt that crime doesn’t pay. For those who attack others corporal punishment should be used. Murderers should be subject to the principle “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” and automatically receive the death penalty.

On the other hand, it is said that such views are unreasonable, cruel and barbaric and that we should show a more humane attitude to punishment and try to understand why a person commits a crime and how society has failed to enable him to live a respectable law-abiding life.

But in any case, the responsibility of the court is to impose an exact and just punishment relevant to the gravity of a crime. The more just the punishment is, the greater is the possibility of a person's reformation. The defence lawyer may make a speech in mitigation on behalf of the offender.

There are several kinds of punishment available to the courts. In civil cases, the most common punishment is a fine. For criminal offences fines are also often used when the offence is not a very serious one and when the offender has not been in trouble before. Another kind of punishment available in some countries is community service. This requires the offender to do a certain amount of unpaid work, usually for a social institution such as a hospital. For more serious crimes the usual punishment is deprivation of liberty – imprisonment, exile and public censure. Some prison sentences are suspended: the offender is not sent to prison if he keeps out of trouble for a fixed period of time, but if he does offend again both the suspended sentence and any new one will be imposed. The length of sentences varies from a few days to a lifetime. However, a life sentence may allow the prisoner to be released after a suitably long period if a review (parole) board agrees his detention no longer serves a purpose. Capital punishment is usually used only as an exceptional measure when an especially determined by law. There are quite a lot of countries where death penalty is prohibited.

In some countries, such as the Netherlands, living conditions in prison are fairly good because it is felt that deprivation of liberty is punishment in itself and should not be so harsh that it reduces the possibility of the criminal reeducating and reforming himself. In other countries, conditions are very bad.

 

Task 1. Give the Ukrainian equivalents of the following words & expressions.

convicted person, retribution for the crime, suspended sentence, public censure, in mitigation,a life sentence, gravity of a crime, deprivation of liberty, to impose a just punishment, to be released, a harsh punishment, penology, exile, reformation, discharge, a restriction of the rights, a fine, offender, to send to prison, community service, a parole board.

 

Task 2. Translate the following words & expressions into English.

умовне покарання, утримати від злочину, довічне ув’язнення, утримувати за гратами, обмежувати, кара, попереджувати злочини, попередні засудження, брати до уваги обставини, перевиховання, виступати від імені, суспільно-корисна праця, позбавлення волі, ув’язнення, відправити за грати, тяжкість злочину, пом’якшення.

 

Task 3 . Translate the following words & expressions.

convicted person, утримувати за ґратами, retribution for the crime, обмежувати, public censure, довічне ув’язнення, to impose a just punishment, суспільно-корисна праця, suspended sentence, брати до уваги обставини, to be released, утримати від злочину, exile, позбавлення волі, a restriction of the rights, позбавляти власності, a harsh punishment, смертна кара, purpose of punishment, попередні ув’язнення, law-abiding life, рада по умовно-достроковому звільненню, corporal punishment.

Task 4 . Match the following words & expressions with their Ukrainian equivalents.

1. convicted person 2. retribution for the crime 3. to impose a just punishment 4. gravity of a crime 5. person’s reformation 6. in mitigation 7. to make a speech on behalf of the offender 8. deprivation of liberty 9. suspended sentence 10. life sentence 11. parole board

a. рада по умовно-достроковому звільненню b. позбавлення волі c. довічне ув’язнення d. умовний вирок e. винести справедливе покарання f. виступати від імені злочинця g. тяжкість злочину h. засуджений i. для пом’якшення j. перевиховання k. кара за злочин

 

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