Punishments and penalties CHECK YOUR ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR LAW

CHECK YOUR ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR LAW

Punishments and penalties

Check your knowledge of punishment and penalty vocabulary with this quiz. 1 Punish is the verb and punishment is the noun, but what is the adjective form of the word? What are the verb and adjective forms of the noun penalty? 2 Choose the most appropriate word in bold in this sentence: 'The court ordered the defendant to pay purgative / punishing / punitive / pugnacious damages to the claimant for the emotional distress he had caused.' 3 Rearrange the letters in bold to make words: 'After the jury returned a 'guilty' verdict on the defendant, the judge nopcnedoru tescenen on him.' 4 What do we call a punishment which is considered to be strong enough to stop someone from committing a crime? Is it: (a) a detergent (b) a deterrent (c) a detriment (d) a determinant 5 Some countries still have corporal punishment and some still have capital punishment. What happens to the people who receive these punishments? 6 In Britain, a man is stopped by the police for driving at 45 in a 30mph zone. What will (probably) happen to him? 7 Next week, the same man is stopped again, and the police discover that he has been drinking alcohol and has over twice the allowed limit of alcohol in his body. What will probably happen to him now? 8 Rearrange the letters in bold to make words. The first and last letters of each word are in the correct place: 'If a defendant is found guilty of an offence in a court of law, he is ciecnotvd. If he is found not guilty, he is ateqciutd.' 9 What's the difference between a custodial sentence, a suspended sentence and probation? 10 A young man gets drunk and starts a fight in a bar, and as a result receives a banning order from a magistrate. What is he not allowed to do? 11 The same young man has a long history of harassing and intimidating his neighbours, stealing from shops and damaging property. He receives an ASBO and is ordered to sign an ABC. What do you think these abbreviations stand for? 12 What kind of person would be sent to a remand centre? 13 What is the maximum penalty allowed for crime in the United Kingdom? 14 Prison is a noun. What is the verb form of this word? 15 A judge sends someone to prison for a period of 5 years, and tells him / her that by law they cannot be released earlier. True or false: this is called a determinate sentence. 16 A woman is sentenced to 6 months in prison for theft, 4 months in prison for selling drugs, and 1 month in prison for refusing to pay her council tax. The judge tells her that these sentences will be concurrent, or run concurrently. What is the maximum length of time the woman will spend in prison? 17 Rearrange the letters in bold to make words: The same woman has her sentence reduced because of dogo hevirobua and is released after only 4 months. 18 True or false: If someone receives a community service order, they have to go to prison. 19 A company signs a bond at the same time that is signs a contract with another company. What will happen to the company if they fail to comply with the terms of the contract? 20 Choose the correct word in bold in this sentence: An injection / injunction / injury / injustice is a court order telling someone to stop doing something, or not to do something. 21 What do we call money that is paid from one party to another to cover the cost of damage, loss, injury or hardship? (Clue: it begins with c and ends with n) 22 Mr Smith goes to the Bahamas to start a new life. While he is there, an English court applies a freezing order to Mr Smith's assets. Would Mr Smith be happy or unhappy about this?

ANSWER KEY

1. punishable (for example, a punishable act, or a crime punishable with imprisonment) (Note: not punishing, which describes something that is exhausting and makes you tired) / penalise and penal (a penal code is a set of laws governing crime and its punishment. A penal institution is a place such as a prison where convicted criminals are kept) 2. punitive (= something that is intended to punish. We can also say exemplary damages. Punitive can also come before other words such as action, measures, sanctions, restrictions, taxes, tariffs, etc) 3. pronounced sentence (we can also say passed sentence. Sentence can be a noun or a verb) 4. a deterrent (for example, a long prison sentence will act as a deterrent to other possible criminals) 5. Corporal punishment: he / she is physically beaten with a stick or a whip. Capital punishment: he / she is judicially killed / executed (he / she has committed a capital crime and receives the death penalty or a death sentence)* 6. He may be given a caution or a warning by the police to slow down. Alternatively he might be fined (police often issue on-the-spot fines, which you have to pay immediately) and / or be given points on his licence (if you receive too many points within a certain time period, your licence will be temporarily withdrawn). 7. He will almost certainly be banned / disqualified from driving for at least a year, and will probably be fined. If he causes an accident as a result of being drunk in charge of a vehicle, he might also be sent to prison. 8. convicted / acquitted 9. A custodial sentence involves sending someone to prison. A suspended sentence is a sentence of imprisonment which a court orders shall not take effect unless the offender commits another crime. Probation is often a feature of a suspended sentence: the individual (the probationer) must behave in a certain way, under the supervision of a probation officer. 10. He is not allowed to go in that bar again, and might also be banned from other bars / public places in the area. 11. In Britain, an ASBO (pronounced as one word) is an Antisocial Behaviour Order. This is an order which is applied for by the police against any individual over the age of 10 years old who is causing someone distress, harm or harassment, in order to restrict their behaviour. If an ASBO is breached, the individual can expect to be punished. An ABC is an Acceptable Behaviour Contract. This is a formal written agreement which an individual signs to say he will not act in an antisocial manner in the future. 12. A young person (in Britain, normally someone under the age of 18) who has committed a crime (a remand centre is a special prison for young people who have been remanded in custody) 13. Life imprisonment (for crimes such as murder. Note that life imprisonment does not necessarily mean the offender spends his / her entire life in prison: in the United Kingdom, life imprisonment for murder lasts on average 10 years) 14. imprison (= to send someone to prison) 15. True 16. Six months: concurrent sentences take place at the same time as each other. 17. good behaviour 18. False. He / she is sentenced to do unpaid work in the local community (the abbreviation is CSO). 19. They will have to pay money to the other company: a bond is a document in which a company or individual promises to pay money if something happens (for example, if they breach a contract) 20. injunction (for example, The Beckhams' lawyer applied for an injunction to stop the publisher from printing the book) 21. Compensation (the defendant would be ordered to pay compensatory damages to the injured party) 22. He would be unhappy: his assets (= his money and other belongings) have been frozen, which means that he cannot take them out of the country (also called a freezing injunction, and known until 1999 as a Mareva injunction). * Corporal punishment was abolished in England, Scotland and Wales in 1948, and in Northern Ireland in 1968. Capital punishment for murder was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1965.