Тема 14. The history of punishment
Упражнение 1. Заполните пропуски, используя следующие слова.
wrongdoer misdeeds deterrent retribution death penalty rehabilitate reform barbaric law-abiding humane crime doesn’t pay corporal punishment
What is the purpose of punishment? One purpose is obviously to 1) _____the offender, to correct the offender’s moral attitudes and antisocial behaviour and to 2) ____ 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 3) _____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 4) ______, which basically means revenge. In other words, don’t we feel that a 5)_____should suffer for his 6) ____?
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 7) ___ ___ ___. For those who attack others 8) ___ ___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 9) ___ ___
On the other hand, it is said that such views are unreasonable, cruel and 10) _____and that we should show a more 11) _____ 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, 12) ____life.
Упражнение 2.Прочитайте и переведите статьи из УК РФ.
Article 43. The Concept and the Purposes of Punishment
1. Punishment is a measure of state compulsion assigned by a court’s judgement. Punishment shall be applied to a person who has been found guilty of the commission of a crime. It consists of the deprivation or restriction of the rights and freedoms of this person, as provided for by this Code.
2. Punishment shall be applied for the purpose of restoring social justice, and also for the purpose of reforming a convicted person and of preventing the commission of further crimes.
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Article 44. Penalties
The following penalties may be applied:
a) fines;
b) deprivation of the right to hold specified offices or to engage in specified activities;
c) deprivation of a special and military rank or honorary title, class rank and of government decorations;
d) compulsory works;
e) corrective labour;
f) restriction in military service;
g) abolished
h) restricted liberty;
i) arrest;
j) service in a disciplinary military unit;
k) deprivation of liberty for a definite period;
l) deprivation of liberty for life;
m) capital punishment.
Упражнение 3. Прочитайте, переведите текст и заполните пропуски, используя следующие слова.
From the History of Punishment
victim; felons; offender; beheading; adultery; pillory; punishment; execution;
deliberately; condemned; ancient; medieval; guilty; legal; public
For the most history 1) _______ has been both painful and 2) ______ in order to act as deterrent to others. Physical punishments and public humiliations were social events and carried out in most accessible parts of towns, often on market days when the greater part of the population was present. Justice had to be seen to be done.
One of the most bizarre methods of 3) ______ was inflicted in ancient Rome on people found 4) _______of murdering their fathers. Their punishment was to be put in a sack with a rooster, a viper, and a dog, and then drowned along with the three animals. In 5) _______Greece the custom of allowing a 6) ________man to end his own life by poison was extended only to full citizens. The philosopher Socrates died in this way. Condemned slaves were beaten to death instead. Stoning was the ancient method of punishment for 7) ________among other crimes.
In Turkey if a butcher was found guilty of selling bad meat, he was tied to a post with a piece of stinking meat fixed under his nose, or a baker having sold short weight bread could be nailed to his door by his ear.
One of the most common punishments for petty offences was the 8) ________, which stood in the main square of towns. The 9) ________was locked by hands and head into the device and made to stand sometimes for days, while crowds jeered and pelted the offender with rotten vegetables or worse.
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In 10) _______Europe some methods of execution were 11) ______drawn out to inflict maximum suffering. 12) _______ were tied to a heavy wheel and rolled around the streets until they were crashed to death. Others were strangled, very slowly. One of the most terrible punishments was hanging and quartering. The 13) _______was hanged, beheaded and the body cut into four pieces. It remained a 14) _______method of punishment in Britain until 1814. 15) _______was normally reserved for those of high rank. In England “block and axe” was the common method but this was different from France and Germany where the victim kneeled and the head was taken off with a swing of the sword.
Упражнение 4. Ответьте на вопросы к тексту.
1) Why did ancient punishment have to be painful?
2) What was the purpose of making punishments public?
3) What was the symbolic meaning of the punishment inflicted on the
parent’s murderers?
4) What punishment was most common for petty offences?
5) How did punishments reflect social status?
Упражнение 5. Прочитайте и переведите текст.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Capital punishment is a legal infliction of the death penalty; in modern law, corporal punishment in its most severe form. The usual alternative to the death penalty is long-term or life imprisonment.
The earliest historical records contain evidence of capital punishment. It was mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi. The Bible prescribed death as the penalty for more than 30 different crimes, ranging from murder to fornication. The Draconian Code of ancient Greece imposed capital punishment for every offence.
In England, during the reign of William the Conqueror, the death penalty was not used, although the results of interrogation and torture were often fatal. By the end of the 15th century, English law recognized six major crimes: treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape, and arson. By 1800, more than 200 capital crimes were recognized; and as a result, 1000 or more persons were sentenced to death each year (although most sentences were commuted by royal pardon). In early American colonies the death penalty was commonly authorized for a wide variety of crimes. Blacks, whether slave or free, were threatened with death for many crimes that were punished less severely when committed by whites.
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Efforts to abolish the death penalty did not gather momentum until the end of the 18th century. In Europe, a short treatise, On Crimes and Punishments, by the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, inspired influential thinkers such as the French philosopher Voltaire to oppose torture, flogging, and the death penalty.
The abolition of capital punishment in England in November 1965 was welcomed by most people with humane and progressive ideas. To them it seemed a departure from feudalism, from the cruel pre-Christian spirit of revenge: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
The classic moral arguments in favor of the death penalty have been biblical and call for retribution. “Whosoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed” has usually been interpreted as a divine warrant for putting the murderer to death. “Let the punishment fit the crime” is its secular counterpart; both statements imply that the murderer deserves to die. Defenders of capital punishment have also claimed that society has the right to kill in defence of its members, just as the individual may kill in self-defence. The analogy to self-defence, however, is somewhat doubtful, as long as the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent to violent crimes has not been proved.
The arguments against the capital punishment are the following:
Financial Costs
The death penalty has not ever been a more economical alternative to life imprisonment. A murder trial normally takes much longer when the death penalty is at issue than when it is not. Litigation costs – including the time of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and court reporters, and the high costs of briefs – are all borne by the taxpayer,
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Inevitability of Error
In 1975, only a year before the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of capital punishment, two African-American men in Florida were released from prison after twelve years awaiting execution for the murder of two white men. Their convictions were the result of coerced confessions, erroneous testimony of an alleged eyewitness, and incompetent defense counsel. Though a white man eventually admitted his guilt, a nine-year legal battle was required before the governor would grant them a pardon. Had their execution not been stayed while the constitutional status of the death penalty was argued in the courts, these two innocent men probably would not be alive today.
Barbarity
The latest mode of inflicting the death penalty, enacted into law by nearly two dozen American states, is lethal injection, first used in Texas in 1982. It is easy to overstate the humaneness and efficacy of this method. There is no way of knowing that it is really painless. As the U.S. Court of Appeals observed, there is “substantial and uncontroverted evidence ... that execution by lethal injection poses a serious risk of cruel, protracted death.... Even a slight error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but paralyzed while dying, a sentient witness of his or her own asphyxiation”.
Futility
Gangland killings, air piracy, drive-by shootings, and kidnapping for ransom are among the graver felonies that continue to be committed because some individuals think they are too clever to get caught. Political terrorism is usually committed in the name of an ideology that honors its martyrs; trying to cope with it by threatening terrorists with death penalty is futile.
Упражнение6. Переведите выражения на русский язык и составьте с ними предложения.
to breed evil a brutal sex-maniac
to deter criminals a cold-blooded poisoner
to do away with a desperate villain
to get away with murder a hardened criminal
to go on committing offences a professional killer
to mow down “a social misfit”
to pull the trigger a violent robber
to think twice a violent criminal
a violent thug
to batter
Упражнение7. Переведите слова и предложения на английский язык, используя слова и выражения из упр. 5 и 6.
1) порождать зло
2) подозрительные свидетели
3) тщетность
4) ложные показания
5) хладнокровный отравитель
6) неизбежность
7) остаться безнаказанным
8) устрашать
9) Жестокий сексуальный маньяк остался безнаказанным.
10) Смертельная инъекция – это один из видов смертной казни в США.
11) Верховный Суд поставил под сомнение конституционность закона.
12) Судебные издержки возмещаются за счет налогоплательщиков.
Упражнение8. Переведите на английский язык.
На протяжении веков смертная казнь назначалась за самые разные виды преступлений. В средние века человека могли казнить за хищение имущества, изнасилование и даже поджог. Государственная измена была и остается во многих странах преступлением, наказуемым смертной казнью. Существует мнение, что даже долгосрочное или пожизненное тюремное заключение является бессмысленным наказанием для так называемых идеологических преступников: предателей, шпионов, террористов. Смертная казнь для такого рода преступников – меньшее из двух зол.
Упражнение9. Переведите высказывания за и против смертной казни. Напишите своё мнение на каждое высказывание.
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