WHAT IS CRIME?

Crimes can be thought of as acts which the state considers to be wrong and which can be punished by the state. A crime is an act that is forbidden or the omission of a duty that is commanded by a public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by law. Crimes may be of two general types: petty offences and grave ones. The English legal system, for instance, divides criminal offences into three basic categories: 1) «summary offences» is the category of minor crimes such as parking offences, minor assaults, begging, and less minor crimes such as drinking and driving which are tried without a jury; 2) «indictable offences» are those of more serious offences for which the police are given a power of arrest and which will be tried by jury: murder, manslaughter and serious fraud all come within this category. 3). A number of offences, because of the fact that they are not uniformly major or minor, are termed «either way» offences which may or may not be tried by a jury at the request of the defendant. The best example of these offences is theft which may involve either very small or very large amounts of money.

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. It is a crime to have an abortion in Ireland, but not in Spain. It is a crime not to flush a public toilet after use in Singapore, but not in Malaysia. 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.

Different societies and different governments continually review their ideas of what should and shouldn't be a considered crime. Homosexual acts, suicide and blasphemy were once crimes in all European countries, but have now mostly been decriminalized. On the other hand, discrimination against someone on the grounds of race or sex was not acknowledged as a crime until relatively recent­ly, and is still not recognized in some countries. Recent cases of euthanasia (shortening the life of a sick person) are causing re-evaluations of the concept of murder. In most industrialized countries existing theft laws were not adequate to deal with computer crimes where complex kinds of information are stolen, altered or used to deceive other, and, thus, new laws have been passed.

Task 1. Give two definitions of a crime from the text and think about your own one.

Task 2. Give the examples of «summary», «indictable» and «either way» offences. What classifications of crimes can you mention?

Task 3. How can you prove the statement: There are some acts which are crimes in one country but not in another.

Task 4. Give synonyms from the text to the terms felony and misdemeanor.

Task 5. Speak about the importance of International law in the process of global / world integration. If you go abroad, what you mustn’t do in order to be a law-abiding traveler? Find the answer from the text.

Task 6. Comment on ethic and moral points of euthanasia. Is it a crime or not?

Task 7. Are there any laws in your country against high-tech crimes? Are you legally protected from hakers?

Task 8. There is no such a profession as killer, is there?

Task 9. Prepare a 3-minute talk on the topic «What Is Crime».

Vocabulary exercises (part I)

Ex. 1. Now match these crimes / offences (1-16) with their definitions (a-p):

1. forgery (); 2. treason (); 3. fraud (); 4. laundering money (); 5. handling stolen goods (); 6. murder / homicide (); 7. mugging (); 8. drug trafficking (); 9. rape (); 10. arson (); 11. blackmail (); 12. embezzlement (); 13. hijacking

(); 14. perjury (); 15. bribery (); 16. insider dealing ().

a) buying and selling illegal drugs;

b) illegally copying money, documents, etc.;

c) using privileged information about a business for personal profit;

d) sending money to a foreign bank so that it cannot be traced;

e) taking control of (esp. an aircraft) using the threat of force, usu. in order to make political demands;

f) stealing money that is placed in one's care;

g) robbing a person with violence, esp. in a public place;

h) intentionally setting fire to something;

i) unlawfully killing someone;

j) a lie told on purpose in a court of law;

k) the practice of obtaining money or advantage by threatening to make known unpleasant facts about a person or group;

l) being in possession of stolen objects;

m) gaining money by deception;

n) offering something, especially money, to persuade someone to do something for you;

o) betraying your country or government;

p) violent or forced sex.

Ex. 2. Distribute the following crimes among 3 groups:

· violence against the person;

· damaging the good opinion unfairly by saying or writing smth bad;

· dishonestly appropriating the property belonging to another

Words: theft, shoplifting, defamation, rape, murder, slander, robbery, homicide, burglary, kidnapping, manslaughter, house-breaking, libel,

mugging, assault.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14