What stops people from committing crimes?

Crime has become as complex as human nature. Modern technological advancement and tremendous progress in communicating have facilitated criminals of every corner of the world to commit a crime using sophisticated equipment in one place and then escape to another place. The present day world faces the grim problem of illicit drug trafficking, smuggling, hijacking, kidnapping, terrorism. In spite of vigorous and vehement national and international efforts towards combating such crime, it is quite disappointing to note that the crimes are rapidly growing in various forms. Crime control is one of the most difficult and controversial problems. People have very different beliefs about the best way to lower the crime rate.

Public opinion polls suggest that much of the public believes that offenders are made, not born, and so the best way to control crime is to stop it from happening in the first place. This might mean developing educational and social programs to discourage young people from becoming involved in criminal activity. According to Criminal Justice Statistics, over two-thirds of all prison inmates in the U.S. are high school dropouts. So education based programs and policies that encourage schooling may affect both juvenile and adult crime and might be more effective criminal deterrence than raising incarceration rates and increasing the size of police forces.

Other people think that the best way to control crime is to have tougher punishments. This might include having stricter laws, more arrests, and longer prison terms. According to this opinion, the present sentences are not substantial enough. Stricter sentencing, together with automatic incarceration for persistent lawbreakers, instead of bigger police expenditure, has become the latest reaction to the apparent increase in crime.

It is a well-known hypothesis that criminal actions are directly related with possible outcome of the unwanted situation (being caught). To be simple, if the criminal certainly knows that he or she will be responsible for offence and this responsibility will be of high strictness the chances of committing the offence will be much lower. Some countries, especially Asian, have a death penalty for a number of crimes. For example, if someone is caught with drugs, no matter if using them, selling, or just having in the pocket, he or she will be sentenced to death. Most likely that this way the authorities just scare the potential lawbreakers and not change the psychology, however, this method works positively on reducing the crime rate.

However, a large number of studies that have examined the deterrent effect of California’s “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law, which mandated a minimum sentence of 25 years upon conviction for a third strikeable offense, showed that the law at most reduced the felony crime rate by 2%. Only the individuals with two strikeable offences showed any indication of reduced offending. For some crimes, the threat of being sent to prison does not seem to be very effective. For example, a person who commits a “a crime of passion” is in a state of uncontrollable rage or feels overwhelming pressure and may not give any consideration at all to the consequences of his or her actions.

Task 1. Answer the following questions according to the information in the text.

1. What are two different approaches to controlling crime?

2. How could educational and social programs help lower the crime rate?

Task 2. Read these questions and share your answers with a partner.

1. Which of the two different approaches to controlling crime do you think is more effective? Why?

2. Do you think your community has a high crime rate or a low crime rate? Explain.

Task 3. What is your opinion about controlling crime? Write A (agree) or D (disagree) next to the following opinions.

____ 1. Criminals should be punished. If people break the law, they deserve to pay the price, no matter why they did it.

____ 2. Having tough punishments can stop people from committing crimes. If we have severe punishments, people will think twice before they break the law.

____ 3. People need a second chance. If we try to reform criminals, by education, psychological treatment, or other methods, we can turn them away from a life of crime.

____ 4. We need to provide a sense of security in society. Putting people who break the law in prison is the only way to do it.

____ 5. The most important thing we can do is try to prevent crime before it happens. Prevention is always better than punishment.

Task 4. Share your answers in a small group using the following ways of giving your opinion:

The speaker gives an opinion. I think …

I believe …

I feel that …

In my opinion …

The speaker is very sure of his I really think …

or her opinion. I really believe …

I am convinced that …

I am certain that …

The speaker is not really sure of Mmm … well … let me see …

his or her opinion. Well … maybe …

I don’t know …

I guess …

I’m not really sure, but …

Task 5. Read the statements below. Then choose one with which you either agree or disagree. Support your ideas with explanations and examples. You can introduce and link your supporting information with transitional phrases, such as these: