Lesson 22

Should Capital Punishment Be a Major Deterrent to Crime?

Text

Capital Punishment Is the Only Way to Deter Criminals

Perhaps all criminals should be required to carry cards which read: Fragile: Handle with Care. It will never do, these days, to go around referring to criminals as violent thugs. You must refer to them politely as "social misfits". The professional killer who wouldn't think'twice about using his cosh or crowbar to batter some harmless old lady to death in order to rob her of her meagre life-savings must never be given a dose of his own medicine.He is in need of "hospital treatment". According to his misguided defenders, society is to blame.

A wicked s,pciety breeds evil - or so the argument goes. When you listen to this kind of talk, it makes you wonder why we aren't all criminals. We have done away with the absurdly harsh laws of the nineteenth century and this is only right. But surely enough is enough. The most senseless piece of criminal legislation in Britain and a number of other countries has been the suspension of capital puni'shment.

The violent criminal has become a kind of hero-figures in our time. He is glorified on the screen; he is pursued by the press and paid vast sums of money for his "memoirs". Newspapers which specialise in crime-reporting enjoy enormous circulations and the publishers of trashy cops and robbers stories or "murder mysteries" have never had it so good. When you read about the achievement of the great train robbers, it makes you wonder whether you are reading about some glorious resistance movementg. The hardened criminal is cuddled and cosseted by the sociologists on the one hand and adored as a hero by the masses on the other, It' s no wonder he is a privileged person who expects and receives VIP treatment wherever he goes.

Capital punishment used to be a major deterrent. It made the violent robber think twice before pulling the trigger. It gave the cold-blooded poisoner something to ponder about while he was shaking up or serving his arsenic cocktail. It prevented unarmed policemen from being mowed down while pursuing their duty by killers armed with automatic weapons. Above all, it protected the most , vulnerable members of society, young children, from brutal sex-maniacs. It is horrifying to think that the criminal can literally get away with murder. We all know that "life sentence" does not mean what it says.

After ten years or so of "good conduct" the most desperate villain is free to return to society where he will live very comfortably, thank you, on the proceeds of his crime, or he will go on committing offences until he is caught again. People are always will'sng to hold liberal views at the expense of others. It' s aiways fashionable to pose as the defender of the under-dog, so iong as you, personally, remain unaffected. Did the defenders of crime, one wonders, in their desire for fair-play, consult the victims before they suspended capital punishment? Hardly. You see, they couldn't, because all the victims were dead.

II.Read

Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.



1. Can You Turn Him into a Good Guy?

"Why don't I give you a lift home if you live on the new estate?" "I'd appreciate that very much," he replied. I fetched my car from the parking lot and he got in with "Many thanks. " He said no more till we were well across the heath. Then, all of a sudderi, he turned to me and said, "Okay. Pull up here." "Here?" I queried. There was not a house in sight, and the weather was shocking. Anyway, I pulled up. The only thing I could remember after that was something thumping down hard on my head. I passed out. When I came to, I was sprawled in the ditch, soaked to the skin, my head pounding, my car gone and my pockets empty.

I staggered off and eventually tumbled into the police-station to make a report. There was a light shining on the station wall and there, lit up, was a picture of my assailant. I had walked past it for the last seven days. I knew I had seen the face before. He was wanted by the police for armed robbery. I thanked my lucky stars it was not for murder. I looked at the name underneath the face, the face I will never forget. It was-er-it was-oh, bother! I can never remember names.

　

2. Murderers Must Be Hanged

Murderers are cruel sadistic monsters. They must be hanged. What they do puts them beyond the pale of humanity. They are not humans and therefore they cannot expect to be treated as humans. They must be made to see the error of their ways, and the only way of doing that is by hanging them.

British justice is the finest in the world,but by.not imposing the death sentence people will think we are failing to punish crime justly. It is the principle of justice itself that is at stake. How can we claim to be a just nation if people who murder are not themselves e

[1] [2] [3] [4] 下一页