Crime and Punishment About 90 per cent of all
crimes in Great Britain are dealt (Present Simple) with by Magistrates’ courts which can
impose fines or prison sentences of up to six months. More serious cases
go to a Crown Court. The most severe punishment is life imprisonment.
Capital punishment was abolished(Past Simple) in England in November 1965. Today
public opinion in Britain has changed. Some people think that death
penalty may not be the ideal answer, but it is better than nothing. In
England there are no minimum sentences, except for murder, which carries
a penalty of life imprisonment, but life sentences are rarely more than
14 years, because they can be reduced(Present Simple) for good behavior, often by one
third or more. But the problem of how to prevent murders remains. Some
murders are committed(Present Simple) by criminals evading arrest, by insane or mentally
disturbed people, by cold-blooded sadists completely devoid of all
human feelings. The important thing in the prevention of murder is to
eliminate the weapons and instruments with which these crimes are
committed (Present Simple), and to stop the dangerous influence of violence in books,
films, and other mass media, from which some criminals derive their
“inspiration”. What is the purpose of punishment? One purpose is to
correct the offender’s moral attitudes and anti-social behavior and to
assist the offender to return to normal life. Punishment can also be
seen(Present Simple) as a reform because it warns other people of what will happen if
they tempt to break the law. The third purpose lies in society’s desire
for retribution. In any case, we should try to understand why a person
commits a crime and how society failed to enable him to live a
respectable life.