Crime and Punishment

Hello Year 12 blogsters! We are exploring the ideas of crime and punishment in different societies and contexts. I've given you questions for you to focus on in your research. Please share interesting links and new vocabulary for us all to learn from. Ms Chapman

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Crime

Definition:
A crime is illegal action or activity that violates a public law defined by a state or a country. In more general sense it is an offense against the molar rules which is widely known and accepted by most people. This can either intentional or accidental for various reasons.

How should criminals be treated?
As far as I am concerned, criminals should be punished differently according to types of crime that they commit. According to the research, there are a variety of types of crime, including anti-social behaviour, religious hate crime, domestic violence, bugging and assault, drugs and crime, gun crime, homophobic crime, film and music piracy and rape and sexual assaults.

First, these days there are increasing numbers of people commit crimes related to property as the world become more competitive. In 2002 the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) estimated that one Crime Index offense was committed every 2.7 seconds in the United States. Property crimes were committed more frequently (one every 3.0 seconds) than violent crimes (one every 22.1 seconds), down from one every 19 seconds in 1996. In this sense, in order to decrease the rate of these types of crime, the government should punish depending on the value of property. For example the property they steal may not worth much therefore it would not be fair for the government to send the person straight to jail. Instead they should educate thief so they become a bigger threat to the community. On the other hand, the government should punish strongly to the criminals who stole great deal of properties. They should be sent to prison for less than five years, depending on the property.

In addition, hate crime, including religious hate crime and racial hate crime, have been going on for infinite centuries. For those criminals, government should not only punish them by sending them to prison, but they also need education about understanding the society.

In general, the government should figure out the reasons and source of crimes. They should not only punish but try to get rid of the crime occurring again.



Fair punishments:
Capital punishments are necessary and fair in specific situations. Capital punishment is the most extreme form of punishment which kills criminals to pay for their guilt.
There are many opponents argue that everyone including criminals should have the fundamental right which is life. They believe it is to cruel to kill people to pay for their offences, also it could be more reasonable to let criminals who kill others intentionly put in prison for a long time or even for the whole lives to reduce the threat to the society.

However, when a criminal commits a capital crime intentionally, they can not only be a great threat to the society; as those criminals did not respect other people’s legal rights some even kill other people without feeling guilty, they but also have no any reason that their rights and lives should be protected by the community and the government. In other words, they infringe upon others personal rights, they should be taken their lives to give some slight consolation to family of victims and pay for their offence. Of course, when the government determines to proceed capital punishment, they should figure out the reasons and situations of the crime carefully and completely, in order to prevent wrong people lose their lives. Also, even if a person murdered others, it is very important to find out the reasons. The reasons for the crime are usually vary with the situations and purposes, such as for revenge, self-satisfaction, or by accident. In this case, the government should verify clearly and eliminate any possibility that capital punishments apply to criminals who are falsely accused. In this sense, the world will become safer and more peaceful for us under a strict law for criminals, reducing the number of extreme crimes effectively.



Difference between manslaughter and murder:
Manslaughter can be divided into voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary manslaughter means that a person kills others on purpose, whereas involuntary manslaughter belongs to killing others accidentally. They the second degree of it is murdering which need plan and specific purpose to kill others. Therefoe they should receive different punishments by considering potential factors such as their crime motives. So when the government decide to punish them they should combine both physical and mental pain that victims received. If it is murder, it should be punished heavily, but involuntary manslaughter should be punished slightly lighter.

Criminals in Korea:

There are many ways that South Korea treat the criminals depending on the their ages, purposes of crimes, and the possibility of occuring again in the future. Therefore, they are always viewed by citizens differently. In general, citizens and companies hate criminals as they may can commit crime again, which making the criminals difficult to find job after getting out of the prison.
Expecially, for those sex offeners of ten hardly accustom to the society, adding that they also wear location detectors to avoid second crime. This greatly limit their social lives and carrers. For teenagers, punishments are often lighter than that give to adults, mainly focusing on education. However, as the Korean job market is very competitive, if students have record of any crime, it will largely affect their college enterence, future job and social relationship. In this case, most criminals have lots of difficulties to live in the society as they are coldly seen and treated by others.
The most severe punishment in Korea is CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. In South Korea, there are 57 criminal convicts on death row but no excutions have taken place since 1998.
pictures from GOOGLE
LEE GA HYEON

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