crime-and-punishment.doc

GESE9-4Crime and Punishment
1. What is crime?
A crime is an illegal action or activity for which a person can be punished by law. Crimes are considered injurious to society or the community. In most countries, crimes are defined and punished pursuant to law. Such as: drug abuse; theft; drunkenness; fraud; burglary; vandalism; weapon; carrying; robbery; gambling; murder and so on.
2. Criminal Punishment
Punishments may include death, imprisonment, exile, fines, forfeiture of property, removal from public office, and disqualification from holding such office .1.The major driving force underlying all punishment is revenge, also referred to as retribution. 2. Criminal punished may be deterred from future wrongdoing because they from criminal behavior.
3. Youth crime
a. Now many young people are involved in drug misuse, crime and other antisocial behavior. Official records and ‘self-report’ studies show that individuals more often break the law when they are young. The ‘peak’ ages at which they are most likely to be found guilty or cautioned are between 15and 19. Criminal involvement typically starts before the age of 15, but declines markedly once young people reach their 20s. However, young people who became involved in crime at the earliest ages.-before they are 14-tend to become the most persistent offenders, with longer criminal careers.
b. Major risk factors for youth crime are:
-low income and poor housing
-living in deteriorated inner city areas
-a high degree of impulsiveness and hyperactivity
-low intelligence and low attainment
-poor parental supervision and harsh erratic discipline
-parental conflict and broken families
c. There are some promising techniques for reducing the risks of crime:
- frequent home visiting by health professionals during pregnancy and infancy
-education in parenting
-high quality nursery education
-training children to ‘stop and think ’
4. Why do many young people commit crime? (why people commit crimes and deviate from society’s norms of behavior? )
Nowadays, youth crime is becoming a concern in many countries. In my opinion, there are following reasons. First of all, most young people, especially teenagers who are not grown up, tend to be tempted by substantial benefits. Most of young offenders are motivated by material gain. Secondly, they have a temper of impulsiveness or someone else. And also, a minority of delinquencies, especially vandalism (break windows, graffiti painted on buildings and waste on the ground and taking vehicles without the owner’s consent), are committed for excitement, enjoyment or to relieve boredom.
5. Is there any crime in the area that you know about?
6. Discussion;
Throughout history and in many different parts of the world, societies have devised a wide assortment of punishment methods. In ancient times, societies widely accepted the law of equal retaliation, a form of corporal punishment that demanded “an eye for an eye”. If one person’s criminal action injured another person, authorities would similarity maim the criminal. Certain countries throughout the world still practice corporal punishment. For instance, in some Islamic nations officials exact revenge-based corporal punishments against criminals—such as amputation of a thief’s hand. Monetary compensation is another historic punishment method. In England during the early Middle Ages (5thcentury to 15th century) payments of ‘blood money’ were required as compensation for death, personal injury, and theft.
However, at present criminologists theorize about why people commit crimes and deviate from society’s norms of behavior. They also study how society punishes criminals because different methods of punishment may cause people to alter their behavior in different way.
Some modern forms of criminal punishment, such as community service, have heatedly discussed. They reflect a philosophy of correction, rather than(or in addition to) one of penalty. Correctional programs attempt to teach offenders how to substitute lawful types of behavior for unlawful actions. What do you think of it?
Another alternative punishment?
7. What is copyright law?
Copyright, branch of law granting authors the exclusive privilege to reproduce, distribute, perform, or display their creative works. The goal of copyright law is to encourage authors to invest effort in creating new works of arts and literature. Copyright is one branch of the larger legal field known as intellectual property, which also includes trademark and patent law. Copyright law is the legal foundation protecting the work many major industries, including book publishing, motion-picture production, music recording, and computer software development. These industries account for considerable economic activity, making copyright law a field of enormous economic importance.
Debate: Does violence on the screen in crease the increase the rate of crime?
8. What knowledge do you have about law? How do you know that?
9.Do teenagers need to learn about law? Why?
10.What dangers of scofflawry are there? Give some examples
11.What do you think Chinese and western legal systems?
12.What do you think of the relation of crime and punishment under the context of benevolence in China?
Words
Vandalism convict sb. of robbery juror victim sentence penalty prosecutor charge sb.with murder international crime terrorist tribunal high-tech crime fraud embezzlement price-fixing income-tax evasion juvenile court criminal law civil law copyright law intellectual property infringe disquieting statue public nuisance exempt from
Miscellaneous
1.Do you think most people in China abide by the law?
I think it is true that many people in China abide by the law. This is because the penalty for breaking a law, even for a petty offence, is very harsh.
2.Do you think it’s important for people to obey laws?
I think that it is important for people to obey laws. Laws are made to keep the society in order, so if all people obey the laws, the society will be a much more peaceful place to live in.
3.What benefit are there for society when people obey laws?
When people obey laws, the society at large can be assured that when they go out, they will not be attacked or robbed. There will be a sense of security and trust in the society and this is good for the whole society.
4. Many people think that occasional, minor breaches of the law is ok?
When people think in this way, it is because the punishment for minor offences is too lenient. For example, nobody will be sent to jail for throwing a stone at somebody’s window. This mindset is wrong. A branch of law, no matter how occasional, how minor, is still a breach or law and people should not think it is okay to breach the law when the punishment is light.
5.Do people in China the police?
Generally people in China have a kind of respect mixed with awe towards the police.When the police help them, the people respect them. But when the police are doing something which the people disagree with, then the people will hate the police. It all depends on whether what the police do harms the people’s self interests.
6. Why does need more police or lawyers because our society is so large and diverse that it is difficult to assume that all people will be obedient and behave themselves. Therefore police and lawyers are needed to ensure that whoever breaches the law is punished while those who obey the law are protected.
7.Why do you think some people want to work as lawyers?
Many people are attracted to the career of a lawyer because a lawyer’s pay is several times higher than an ordinary office worker. Moreover, lawyers are generally respected and have social status as they are seen to be doing good for the society.
8.What do you think is the reason for having laws?
Laws are made to safeguard the interests of the society in large and to punish those who harm other people in order to gain more benefits for themselves.
9.,What would the society be like if there were no laws?
In an ideal world, no laws are needed to be used as everybody knows how to behave . However, in this real world, a society without laws would be chaotic and unlivable because people would try to do everything, be it robbery or extortion, to gain more advantages for themselves.
10.Do you think it’s suitable to have exactly the same laws for every country?
It is definitely not suitable to have exactly the same laws. For one thing, different countries are governed by different groups of people whose opinions on what is good for their people differ very much. Since different places have different traditions and made to suit the local culture. Since different places have different traditions and cultures, it will not be suitable to enforce the same set of laws on every country. For example, Western countries like the United States make it illegal for a man for marry two women at the same time while in most Muslim countries such as Arabia it is common and not against the law for a Muslim man to marry more than one woman.