Read and translate the text. Do the tasks that follow it.

The death penalty.

Many Americans believe that the death penalty is effective in deterring people from committing murder. However, others disagree, and many criminologists argue that the evidence does not support this view. The evidence they provide includes the following:

a. The United States is the only industrialized nation that still executes murderers and yet it has the highest murder rate in the industrialized world.

b. In states of the United States that have retained the capital punishment, the homicide rates are generally much higher than in states that have abolished it, and the gap has grown since 1990. For example, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, which still use the death penalty, have considerably higher murder rates than Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, which have abolished capital punishment. This suggests that the death penalty does not deter murder.

c. In states that have abolished the death penalty, homicide rates generally did not go up after the death penalty was abolished. Moreover, where capital punishment was restored in states that had earlier abolished it, it did not lead to any significant decrease in homicides.

d. If the death penalty has a deterrent effect, then the execution of convicted murderers should scare potential killers and discourage them from killing. The number of homicides in the area should therefore decline. This may sound logical but the reality contradicts it. In Philadelphia during the 1930s, for example, the number of homicide remained about the same in the period from sixty days before to sixty days after a widely publicized execution of five murderers. This finding, among others, suggests that the death penalty apparently does not frighten potential killers and prevent them from killing.

e. A cross-national study of the impact of the death penalty conducted by the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty concludes, “If capital punishment is a more effective deterrent than the alternative punishment of long imprisonment, its abolition ought to be followed by homicide rate increases. The evidence examined here fails to support and in fact repeatedly contradicts this proposition. In this cross-national sample, abolition was followed more often than not by absolute decreases in homicide rates, not by the increases. In other words, when the death penalty was abolished, the majority of countries experienced a decline in homicide rates.

Some of this evidence is questionable. For example, regarding point b, the existence or not of capital punishment may not be the only difference between the states mentioned. Other differences, such as poverty levels or other population features, may account for the variation in murder rates.

Nevertheless, there is still considerable evidence to suggest that the death penalty does not deter murder, or, more accurately, it is no more effective than life imprisonment in deterring murder. One reason is that murder is a crime of passion, most often carried out under overwhelming pressure of an explosive emotion and uncontrollable rage. People in that condition usually cannot stop and think calmly about the death penalty. Another reason is that other factors, which may lead people to commit murder, such as having been brutally abused in childhood, are simply too powerful to be overcome by the threat of capital punishment.

While capital punishment may not deter people from committing murder; it can be effective for other purposes. It is obviously effective in preventing the murderer who is executed from doing harm to others again. It also succeeds in satisfying the emotion of outrage against the crime. Many Americans seem to advocate the death penalty for these reasons. As public opinion polls have shown, more than half of the U.S. adult population would still favor capital punishment even if they knew that it did not deter murder (Gallup 2010). This public support is reflected in the increasing number of executions up to 1999, as represented in the figures provided in Figure 1. However, the reduction in numbers since 1999 may reflect a shift in public opinion.

Task 1.This text presents detailed evidence to support the position that the existence of the death penalty does not deter people from committing murder. Complete the following statements of evidence.

1. In states that have abolished capital punishment, the murder rates _____________________

2. When some states returned to using the death penalty, ______________________________

3. After widely publicized executions of criminals in Philadelphia in the 1930s, ____________

4. The evidence from other countries ______________________________________________

Task 2. Find a synonym for each word from the text given below. If you don’t find a synonym in the text, try to think of one. Write your synonym next to each word.

death penalty _____________ accurately _____________

homicide _____________ powerful _____________

deter _____________ preventing _____________

go up _____________ outrage _____________

decline _____________ advocate _____________

Task 3. Look at the graph below and answer the following questions.

1. According to the police chiefs, what is the most effective way to reduce violent crime? What

is the least effective?

2. Do you agree with the police chiefs? Why or why not?

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