What is a Crime?

Crime is a part of public law – the law regulating the relations between citizens and the state. Crimes are acts which the state considers to be wrong and which can be punished by the state. There are some acts which are crimes in one country but not in another. For example, it is a crime to drink alcohol in Saudi Arabia, but not in Egypt. It is a crime to smoke marijuana in England, but not (in prescribed places) in the Netherlands. It is a crime to have more than one wife at the same time in France, but not in Indonesia. In general, however, there is quite a lot of agreement among states as to which acts are criminal. A visitor to a foreign country can be sure that stealing, physically attacking someone or damaging their property will be unlawful. But the way of dealing with people suspected of crime may be different from his own country.

The most fundamental characteristic of a crime is that it is “ a punishable offence against society”. Consequently, when a crime occurs, society, acting through such employees as the police and prosecutors, attempts to identify, arrest, prosecute, and punish the criminal. These measures are designed to protect society rather than to aid the victim of the crime. Victims of almost all crimes can sue identified criminals for civil damages, but seldom do because it is costly and difficult to collect from such defendants.

Elements of Crimes

Before anyone can be convicted of a crime, three elements usually must be proved at the trial. They are: (1) a duty to do or not to do a certain thing, (2) a violation of the duty, and (3) criminal intent.

Duty. The duty to do or not to do a certain thing usually is described by statutes which prohibit certain conduct. Generally only conduct that is serious – involving violence or theft of property – is classified as an offence against society and therefore criminal.

Violation of the Duty. The breach of duty must also be proved in a criminal trial. This is the specific conduct by the defendant, which violates the duty. For example, battery is always a crime. Criminal battery is often defined in statutes as “the intentional causing of corporal harm ”. Corporal harm means bodily harm. A breach of this duty could be established in a trial by the testimony of a witness who swore that she saw the defendant deliberately punch the victim.

Criminal Intent. The third element, criminal intent, must be proved in most cases. Criminal intent generally means that the defendant intended to commit the act and intended to do evil.

A few crimes do not require criminal intent. These are generally less serious crimes, for which a jail sentence is very unlikely. Traffic offences fall within this classification.

Nowadays statutes of most states fix the age of criminal liability at 18, but the figure ranges from 16 to 19. Statutes often provide that minors as young as 13 or 16 may be tried and punished as adults if they are accused of serious crimes such as murder. Generally, however, what is a crime for adults is juvenile delinquency for minors.

Ignorance or mistake is generally no excuse for violating a law. A person is presumed to know what the law is. To have criminal intent, one must have sufficient mental capacity at the time one commits a crime to know the difference between right and wrong and to be capable of deciding what to do. Accordingly, insane persons are not held liable for their criminal acts.

Normally neither voluntary intoxication nor drug abuse is a good defense against a criminal charge.

Exercise 4.9. Make up correct word combinations out of the following and translate them:

A B

1. to damage 2. to identify 3. to involve 4. to do 5. to deal with 6. to know 7. to aid 8. to violate 9. to protect 10. to prohibit

a. people b. society c. difference d. a conduct e. evil f. property g. violence h. a criminal i. the duty j. the victim

1. drug 2. corporal 3. mental 4. civil 5. fundamental 6. specific 7. foreign 8. traffic 9. criminal 10. punishable

a. conduct b. country c. offence d. intent e. offence f. harm g. abuse h. damages i. capacity j. characteristic

Exercise 4.10. Fill in the gaps with necessary words or word combinations from the list given below.

1. We have heard this company discharged some ___________ on grounds of staff reduction.

2. The _______ of a teenage rugby player has been recovered from a canal and detectives believe that the _________ was murdered.

3. You are stopped by a police officer and subsequently a case is brought against you for ____________.

4. The judge directed the jury that the test be applied to determine whether Seer’s responsibility was diminished, whether he could be described partially __________.

5. A __________ may avoid guilt if he can show he has a defence – a reason or an _________ that the court should take into account.

6. The ___________ of the last witness proved that the accused had had criminal ________ to commit the murder.

(Intent; traffic offences; employees; testimony; defendant; body; excuse; insane; victim)

Exercise 4.11. Read the text again to decide whether the following statements are true or false. Argue your decision.

1. Crimes are wrongful acts the damages for which are compensated by a defendant.

2. The way of prosecuting people suspected of a crime commission differs from one country to another.

3. Any crime is considered as an offence against a man personally.

4. The police, prosecutors and other employees are used to investigate a crime, to find, prosecute and punish the offender.

5. Statutes prescribe and prohibit certain conduct of society members.

6. The testimony of witnesses isn’t necessary to establish the violation of the duty.

7. Minors contrary to adults are tried more leniently if they commit serious crimes.

Exercise 4.12. Choose a), b) or c) to complete the following sentences.

1. Crimes are wrongful acts against ________ and punishable by the ______.

a) property; judge

b) society; state

c) a visitor; country

2. Investigating crimes, catching criminals, punishing the guilty are used to __________.

a) prove the defendant’s guilt

b) aid the victim

c) protect society

3. The breach of a duty as the __________ must be established and proved in a trial.

a) certain criminal conduct

b) unusual behaviour

c) wrongful actions

4. Battery is always defined as __________.

a) property damages

b) the bodily injury of a person

c) the criminal’s self-defence

5. Some less serious offences such as _________ don’t require criminal intent.

a) drinking alcohol

b) marijuana trafficking

c) traffic offences

6. ________ is almost never an excuse for breaking it.

a) defence of the law

b) ignorance of the law

c) violation of the law

Exercise 4.13. Choose the meaning of the word used in the text“What is a Crime”.

1. intent

a. the intention to do something

b. a formal or official statement that you intend to do something

c. the intention to commit a crime or an offence

2. liability

a. legal responsibility for causing damage or injury, or for paying something

b. the amount of money that a company owes

c. someone or something that causes problems for someone

3. breach

a. a space made in a wall, fence, or line of defence

b. a failure to follow a law or rule

c. a serious disagreement

4. duty

a. a legal or moral obligation

b. things that you have to do as a part of your job

c. a tax that you must pay on something you buy, or something you bring into one country from another one

5. traffic

a. the information that passes through a communications system

b. the vehicles that are travelling in an area at a

particular time

c. the process of buying and selling things such as drugs and weapons illegally

Exercise 4.14. Answer the following questions on the text “What is a crime?”.

1. What is crime?

2. What behaviour is supposed to be unlawful in each country?

3. What is considered as the main feature of a crime?

4. What measures are used by the society to protect themselves?

5. Which elements must be proved at the trial to convict a suspected person?

6. What is the “duty”?

7. What is the “violation of the duty” and where is it established?

8. What is “criminal intent”?

9. What is the age of criminal liability in different countries?

10. Why isn’t ignorance considered as the excuse for crime committing?

11. Who isn’t held liable for criminal act? Why?

12. What state of a person can’t be a defence against a criminal charge?

Exercise 4.15. Translate the micro text “Crime” in the written form.

Crime

A crime in a nontechnical sense is an act that violates a political or moral rule. But in many nations, the governments have discovered that informal sanctions are ineffective to control some types of antisocial behaviour, so the system of social control has to be formalized. Laws are designed to regulate human behaviour and the state provides remedies and sanctions to protect its citizens if the laws are broken. But not all breaches of the law are considered crimes, e.g. breaches of contract. The label of “crime” and the accompanying social stigma are usually reserved for those activities causing more serious loss and damage to the citizens of the state. Its use is intended to reflect a consensus of condemnation for the identified behaviour and, in the event that an accused is convicted following a trial applying principles of due process, to justify the state imposing punishment. The term is also applied to minor regulatory offences or infractions, e.g. where the criminal law is used to keep order on the road.

Exercise 4.16. Read the text “Elements of Proof in the UK” and make comments on it.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16