外教讲解地道美语 第143期:关于死刑

Professor: That’s all for today’s class. We will continue our lecture on crime and punishment tomorrow.

A: Do you think we should be tougher on crime?

B: Well, it depends on what you mean.

A:For  example, we  could  bring  back  the  death penalty for murder, give longer prison sentences for lesser offences and lock up juvenile offenders.

B: Those  really  sound  like  Draconian  measures. Firstly, what  do  you  do  about  miscarriages of justice if you’ve already put innocent people to death?

A:You’d only use capital punishment if you were absolutely sure that you’d convicted the right person.

B: But, there’ve been many cases of wrongful conviction where people have been imprisoned for many years. The authorities were sure at the time, but later it was shown that the evidence was unreliable. In some cases, it’d been fabricated by the police.

A: Well,  no system of justice can be perfect, but surely there’s a good case for longer prison sentences to deter serious crime.

B:I doubt whether they could act as an effective deterrent while the detection rate is so low.  The best way to prevent crime is to convince people who commit it that they’re going to be caught.  It doesn’t make sense to divert all your resources into the prison system.

A: But if you detect more crimes, you’ll still need prisons. In my reckoning, if we could lock up more juvenile criminals, they’d learn that they couldn’t get away with it. Soft sentences will merely encourage them to do it again.

B: Yes, but remember that prisons are often schools for criminals. To remove crime from society, you really have to tackle its causes.

A: Well, if I were president, I would impose tougher laws and punishment. I would have a peaceful society based on fear of punishment, not consciousness of doing the right thing.

B: You sound like a dictator!

A: Well if it works, why not?
【文章大意】对话围绕该如何对犯罪刑罚而进行。A认为应该用严厉的刑法来威慑犯罪的人，比如对谋杀罪判以死刑，延长监禁时间等。B认为，如果那样做，一旦有误判，将会造成难以挽回的后果。