Treatment of Offenders (Виды наказаний)

Sentencing. The sentence passed on an offender is entirely a matter for the courts, subject to the maximum penalty enacted by Parliament for each offence. The Government ensures that the courts have available an adequate range of sentences to suit the circumstances of each case and that they are well informed about the purpose and nature of each available sentence.

Custody.The Government believes that custody should be a sanction of last resort used only when the gravity of the offence means that there is a positive justification for a custodial sentence, or where the public needs to be protected from a dangerous offender. A magistrates’ court in England and Wales cannot impose a term of more than six months’ imprisonment for each offence tried summarily, but may impose consecutive sentences subject to an overall maximum of 12 months’ imprisonment. As in the rest of Britain there is a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment for murder: this is also the maximum penalty for a number of serious offences such as robbery, rape, arson and manslaughter.

The death penalty has been repealed for almost all offences. It remains on the statute book for the offences of treason, piracy with violence and some other treasonable and mutinous offences.

Fines.The most common sentence is a fine, which is imposed in more than 80 per cent of cases. There is no limit to the fine which may be imposed on indictment.

Probation.At present in the United Kingdom the number of offenders subject to supervision in the community considerably exceeds the number in custody. The purpose of probation is to protect society by the rehabilitation of the offender, who continues to live a normal life in the community while subject to the supervision of a probation officer. Before placing an offender on probation, which may last from six months to three years, the court must explain the order in ordinary language, ensuring that the offender consents to the requirements of the order and understands that a failure to comply with them will make him or her liable to a penalty or to be dealt with for the original offence. In England and Wales such an order can be made only for offenders aged 17 years or more.

The probation service provides and maintains day centers and hostels together with schemes and programmes designed to meet the needs of a broad range of offenders, and, if possible, drawing the community into partnership in responding to offending.

Offenders aged 16 or over (17 in Northern Ireland) convicted of imprisonable offences may, with their consent, be given community service orders.

1. Crime detection and its phases

In most countries the detection of crime is the responsibility of the police, although special law enforcement agencies may be responsible for the discovery of particular types of crime. Customs departments, for instance, may be responsible for the detection of smuggling and related offenses. Crime detection falls into three distinguishable phases: the discovery that a crime has been committed, the identification of a suspect, and the collection of sufficient evidence to indict the suspect before the court. [To indict means to officially charge someone with a criminal offence.] Criminologists have shown that many crimes are discovered by persons, such as victims or witnesses, other than the police, but certain types — in particular crimes that may involve a subject's assent, such as dealing in drugs or prostitution, or those in which there may be no identifiable victim, such as obscenity — are often not discovered unless the police take active steps to determine whether these crimes are being committed. [Obscenity is sexually offensive language or behaviour.] This may require controversial methods, such as surveillance, interception of communications, infiltration of gangs, and entrapment, for example, by making a purchase from a suspected drug dealer. [Surveillance is the act of carefully watching a person or place because they may be connected with criminal activities. To infiltrate means to secretly join an organization or enter a place in order to find out information about them or harm them. Entrapment is the practice of trapping someone by tricking them, especially to show that they are guilty of a crime.]

1. Suspect identification by fingerprints

Forensic science plays an important part in the investigation of serious crimes. One of the first significant developments was identification by fingerprints. [Identification is an act of identifying by official papers or cards, such as your passport, that prove who you are. To identify means to recognize and correctly name someone or something. Fingerprint is a mark made by the pattern of lines at the end of a person's finger, which can be used by the police to help find criminals.] It was discovered in the 19^th century that almost any contact between a finger and a surface left a latent mark. [Something that is latent is present but hidden, and may develop or become more noticeable in the future.] It was accepted in 1893 that no two individuals had the same fingerprints. Fingerprint evidence was accepted for the first time in an English court in 1902. Fingerprinting is now widely used as a means of identifying criminals. Most major police forces maintain collections of fingerprints taken from known criminals at the time of their conviction, for use in identifying these individuals should they commit later crimes. [Conviction is a decision in a court of law that someone is guilty of a crime.] Fingerprints found at the scene of the crime are matched with fingerprints in the collection. According to the British standard, if the sets of fingerprints share at least 16 characteristics, it is considered that they are from the same person.