I Vocabulary and speaking

A Recent crime in Poland (Biała Podlaska)

• Killing in cold blood, premeditated killing, killing with malice aforethought

• Crimes of passion

• crime: horrific, abhorrent, shocking, abominable, hideous, heinous, revolting, sordid

• a crime of unspeakable cruelty, great beastliness

• brutality of the crime

• parents killed

• killers had no remorse

• killers were proud of what they had done

• no respect for human life

• mental instability

• psychopath

• the young age of the killers

• lack of maturity

• killing for kicks / the thrill

• the lack of humanity, moral values, no inhibitions

• motives: rejection of the relationship by the parents and anger, frustration accompanying this

Mitigating / extenuating circumstances:

• mental / psychological disorder

• mass culture with films Clockwork Orange, American Psycho

• a sense of superiority

II Popular crimes these days

1 money-related crimes:

• tax evasion

• downloading from the Internet and breach of copyrights

• counterfeit money / forging money

• fraud

• money laundering (changing the status of money from criminal to respectable)

2 origin of crime in human relationships:

• Revenge

• Love

• Rejected love

• Jealousy

• Envy

• Obsession

3 mental instability

4 crimes against the state

Treason

Espionage

Treachery

III Crimes brainstormed by group

1 perjury

2 kidnapping

3 manslaughter

4 trespassing

5 burglary

6 hijacking

IV Vocabulary of crimes: matching words to concepts

1 Unfair treatment on the grounds of race, sex or nationality or other individual preferences

discrimination

2 Stealing money that is in your care but belongs to an organization that you work for

embezzlement

3 Making a person feel anxious and unhappy (sometimes for sexual reasons, sometimes to get a debt repaid) at work, or outside the work setting

harassment

4 Driving around for pleasure in a car that you have stolen

joyriding

5 Moving money obtained illegally so that its origin cannot be traced

money laundering

6 Lying when under oath in a court of law

perjury

7 Going onto someone’s land without their permission

trespassing

8 Demanding money from someone in return for not revealing compromising (sensitive/private) information about them

blackmail

9 Betraying your country, especially by overthrowing the sovereign or the country’s government

Treason (high)

10 stealing things from a shop in a relatively unnoticeable way

shoplifting

V Evaluation of seriousness of a crime

The gravity of the crime, as reflected in the punishment, depends on

• How many people are affected,

• Is it the individual who is affected by the crime or is it society as whole

• The seriousness of the individual case

• The law in different countries (trespassing)

• The circumstances and motives of the offender

• Extenuating / mitigating circumstances

Harrassment affects people personally therefore it’s a more serious crime, is harmful to the individual

Money laundering is a from an ethical point of view you cheat the inland revenue (drug trafficking, prostitution, gambling, protection racket).

Organized crime which has network of people involved in it

Blackmail can be both very serious and less so

• a bad crowd – bad company

• I got done for assault (sentences)

• a doss (a chore)

• to hit it off with sb – get on / along with

Perjury depends on the circumstances, the situation in the country (dictatorship versus democracy)