From the History of Punishment

 

victim; felons; offender; beheading; adultery; pillory; punishment; execution;

deliberately; condemned; ancient; medieval; guilty; legal; public

 

For the most history __________ has been both painful and _______ in order to act as deterrent to others. Physical punishments and public humiliations were social events and carried out in most accessible parts of towns, often on market days when the greater part of the population were present. Justice had to be seen to be done.

One of the most bizarre methods of ______ was inflicted in ancient Rome on people found ______ of murdering their fathers. Their punishment was to be put in a sack with a rooster, a viper, and a dog, and then drowned along with the three animals. In ________ Greece the custom of allowing a _______ man to end his own life by poison was extended only to full citizens. The philosopher Socrates died in this way. Condemned slaves were beaten to death instead. Stoning was the ancient method of punishment for _________ among other crimes.

In Turkey if a butcher was found guilty of selling bad meat, he was tied to a post with a piece of stinking meat fixed under his nose, or a baker having sold short weight bread could be nailed to his door by his ear.

One of the most common punishments for petty offences was the _________, which stood in the main square of towns. The _________ was locked by hands and head into the device and made to stand sometimes for days, while crowds jeered and pelted the offender with rotten vegetables or worse.

In _______ Europe some methods of execution were ______ drawn out to inflict maximum suffering. ______ were tied to a heavy wheel and rolled around the streets until they were crushed to death. Others were strangled, very slowly. One of the most terrible punishments was hanging and quartering. The ________ was hanged, beheaded and the body cut into four pieces. It remained a ________ method of punishment in Britain until 1814. __________ was normally reserved for those of high rank. In England ‘block and axe’ was the common method but this was different from France and Germany where the victim kneeled and the head was taken off with a swing of the sword.

 

TASK 6. Answer the following questions:

 

1. Why did ancient punishment have to be painful?

2. What was the purpose of making punishments public?

3. What was the symbolic meaning of the punishment inflicted on the parent’s murderers?

4. What punishments were most common in the East?

5. How did punishments reflect social status?

 

 

TASK 6. Explain the meaning of the words and expressions from the box. Complete the following text using these words and expressions:

 

THE PURPOSE OF STATE PUNISHMENT

 

 

wrongdoer; misdeeds; deterrent; retribution; death penalty; corporal punishment;

rehabilitate; reform; barbaric; law-abiding; humane; crime doesn't pay

 

 

What is the purpose of punishment? One purpose is obviously to _____ the offender, to correct the offender's moral attitudes and anti-social behaviour and to ______ him or her, which means to assist the offender to return to normal life as a useful member of the community.

Punishment can also be seen as a ______ because it warns other people of what will happen if they are tempted to break the law and prevents them from doing so. However, the third purpose of punishment lies, perhaps, in society's desire for _______, which basically means revenge. In other words, don't we feel that a ______should suffer for his ______?

The form of punishment should also be considered. On the one hand, some believe that we should “make the punishment fit the crime”. Those who steal from others should be deprived of their own property to ensure that criminals are left in no doubt that ___________. For those who attack others _____ should be used. Murderers should be subject to the principle “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” and automatically receive the __________.

On the other hand, it is said that such views are unreasonable, cruel and _______ and that we should show a more ______ attitude to punishment and try to understand why a person commits a crime and how society has failed to enable him to live a respectable, _______ life.