-
6. Crimes and Punishments
Criminal justice is a vast, complex
system. Briefly, it is that part of the legal
system whic
h, first of all, marks off
certain behavior as wrong or
ol or
prevent that behavior by threats of punishment;
and third, if prevention fails, tries to
c
atch and to punish the wrongdoer.
Familiar as the system is in some of its aspects;
in others i
t is obscure and much
misunderstood.
刑事司法是一个庞大、复杂的法律体系。
简言之，
作为法律体系的一部分，
刑事司法发
挥以下作用，首先他对什么行为是错误的或者是“犯罪的”进行定义；然后，通过以刑罚作<
/p>
为震慑手段，采取一定的措施限制或者禁止某种行为；最后，
如果
未能阻止，
找到犯罪的人
并处之以刑罚。刑事司法与其他法律体
系有相同之处，也有其模糊和易被误解的一面。
To begin with, what is a crime? Every
country has its own special list. The list is part
of
an elaborate statute which is
usually called the penal code. The code describes
conduct that i
s illegal and therefore
criminal; it also sets out punishments.
首先，什么是犯罪？每个国家对此都有自独特的范围。这个范围是经精心制定的规范的
其中一部分，这部规范通常称之为“刑法”
。刑法定义哪些行为是违法的并进而构成犯
罪，
它还对刑罚进行了规定。
Some
crimes
are
in
the
penal
codes
of
every
state:
murder,
manslaughter,
robbery,
burglary,
rape,
arson,
and
so
on.
Others
are
less
universal.
The
Georgia
code
makes
it
a
crime
The
Georgia
code
also
deals
with
the
sale
of
obscene
literature,
shooting
guns
on
Sunday,
illegal use of
credit cards and dozens of other offenses.
有些犯罪行为是各国刑法中都会包含的，例如谋杀罪，过失杀人罪，抢劫罪，盗窃罪，强奸
罪，纵火罪等；有些犯罪行为不具有普遍性。例如，格鲁吉亚法典就规定“偷窥”或者以其
他类似性质的行为侵犯个人隐私即构成犯罪，该法典还对销售淫秽文学制品，在周日开枪，
滥用信用卡及其他很多微罪进行了规定。
The great, classic crimes are part of
the social code, whatever their status in the
legal cod
e. The layman knows them as
crimes. He has a rough working knowledge of what
constitutes
murder, even though he does
not understand the law's technicalities and
distinctions. Cold-b
looded killing is
murder, we know, although few of us can tell the
difference between first-de
gree and
second-degree murder, or what
n act of
killing.
无论在刑法中的地位如何，
那些重大的、
众所周知的犯罪行为总会被列入刑法中。
门外汉
也能知道那些行为已经构成了犯罪，
虽然他不一定理解不了立法技术及法律之间
的区分，
但
他能粗略知道关于哪些情况构成谋杀的实用知识。我
们都知道残忍的杀戮肯定是一种谋杀，
尽管只有少数人知道一级谋杀和二级谋杀的区别，
或者什么叫“恶意”
，或者哪种程度上的
精神失常可让其杀人行
为豁免。
Punishment, too, is
variable. It depends mostly on how serious the
crime. Seriousness is no
t inherent in
the criminal conduct; it is a social judgment.
Legally speaking, serious crimes a
re
called felonies; less serious crimes are called
misdemeanors. The exact line between them
i
s a matter of legal definition. In
California, a felony is a crime which can be
punished by dea
th or by a year or more
in prison; all others are misdemeanors, except for
some petty acts (tr
affic violations,
breaches of ordinances) which are called offenses.
Offenses carry less of a pu
nishment
than crimes and have less of a stigma. A history
of parking tickets is not a criminal
record.
所犯罪行的严重程度不同，其所受到的刑罚也是不同的。严重性并不是犯罪行为本身
< br>固有的，只是一种社会评价。从法律上讲，严重的犯罪被称为重罪，相反则为轻罪。要对他
们进行精准区分需要用法律定义。
在加利福利亚州，
重
罪是指会被判处一年以上监禁直至死
刑的罪行，
其余的都为轻罪
，
只除掉某些情节轻微的行为如违反交规，
违反条例等仅构成微
罪。相对于重罪、轻罪而言，微罪所受刑罚较低，也不会留下那么多污点。像被交警开停
车
罚单这种历史都不会被计入刑事档案。
7
、
Law
Law,
body
of
official
rules
and
regulations,
is
generally
found
in
constitutions,
legislation,
judicial opinions, and the like, that is used to
govern a society and to control the
behavior of its members. The nature and
functions of law have varied throughout history.
In
modern societies, some authorized
body such as a legislature or a court makes the
law. It is
backed by the coercive power
of the state, which enforces the law by means of
appropriate
penalties or remedies.
法律是用于管理社会和约束全体社会成员行为的一系列正式规则和规范的集合，
< br>其主要
渊源为宪法，立法和法律意见等。随着历史的变迁，法律的性质以及功能也
在发生改变。在
现代社会，
法律经立法机构或者法院这样的权力
机关制定，
以适当的处罚或者适当的救济作
为手段由国家强制力
保证实施。
Formal
legal
rules
and
actions
are
usually
distinguished
from
other
means
of
social
control
and guides for behavior such as morality, public
opinion, and custom or tradition. Of
course, a lawmaker may respond to
public opinion or other pressures, and a formal
law may
prohibit what is morally
unacceptable.
通常来说，正式的法律规则和法律行为与其他社会管理手
段或者行为指导规范如道德，
公众意见，
习惯或传统等是区别开
来的。
当然，
法律制定者在制定法律过程中也会考虑到公
众意见或其他方面的因素，道德上不被接受的也为正式法律所禁止。
Law serves a variety of functions. Laws
against crimes, for example, help to maintain a
peaceful, orderly, relatively stable
society. Courts contribute to social stability by
resolving
disputes in a civilized
fashion. Property and contract laws facilitate
business activities and
private
planning. Laws limiting the powers of government
help to provide some degree of
freedom
that would not otherwise be possible. Law has also
been used as a mechanism for
social
change;
for
instance,
at
various
times
laws
have
been
passed
to
inhibit
social
discrimination and to
improve the quality of individual life in matters
of health, education,
and welfare.
法律的功能具有多样性。
比如说，
打击犯罪的法
律就有利于维护社会的和平稳定及秩序。
法院以文明的方式解决争端也有助于社会的稳定
。
财产法和合同法有利于商业活动的运行及
私人计划的开展。<
/p>
法律限制了政府的权力，
从而实现了本不可能实现的某种程度的自
由。
法
律还经常被作为社会变革的机器，
比如，
曾在不同的时期通过制定法律来禁止社会歧视，
提
升健康、教育及福利等方面的待遇，以此提高人们的生活质量。
Some
experts
believe
the
popular
view
of
law
overemphasizes
its
formal,
coercive
aspects.
They
point
out
that
if
a
custom
or
norm
is
assured
of
judicial
backing,
it
is,
for
practical purposes, law. On the other
hand, a statute that is neither obeyed nor
enforced is
empty law. Social attitudes
toward the formal law are a significant part of
the law in process.
The
role
of
law
in
China
and
Japan,
for
example,
is
somewhat
different
from
its
role
in
Western nations. Respect
for the processes of law is low, at least outside
matters of business
and industry.
Tradition looms much larger in everyday life.
Resort to legal resolution of a
dispute
is
truly
a
last
resort,
with
conciliation
being
the
mechanism
that
is
preferred
for
social control.
< br>有些专家认为流行的关于法律的观点过分强调法律的形式及法律的强制力。
他们指
出如
果某种习惯或规范被赋予法律的强制力，
那么从实用角度看
，
就已经构成了法律。
相反，如
果一部
法律既无人遵守，
也无人执行，那这部法律就落空了。
在法律的
进程中，社会对正式
法律的态度是很重要的一个方面。举个例子来说，法律在中国和日本
所扮演的角色（地位）
与其在西方国家中所扮演的角色
（地位）
不一样。仅尊重法律的进程是不够的，至少无法促
进工商业的发
展。
在日常生活中传统所发挥的作用更大，
为了社会管理，
一般通过和解的方
式解决纠纷，求助法律手段真的是不得已而为之。
Law is not
completely a matter of human enactment; it also
includes natural law. The
best-known
version of this view, that God's law is supreme,
has had considerable influence in
the
United States and other Western societies. The
civil rights movement, for example, was at
least partially inspired by the belief
in natural law. Such a belief seems implicit in
the view
that law should serve to
promote human dignity, as for instance by the
enforcement of equal
rights for all.
Muslim societies also embrace a kind of natural
law, which is closely linked to
the
religion of Islam.
法律不仅仅是人
制定的，
也包括自然法则。
持这种论调最为人知的观点是，
上帝的法律
是至高无上的，
这种观点在美国
和其他西方国家有较大的影响力。
民权运动的发生至少有一
部分
灵感是来自对自然法则的信仰。
该观点也认同法律应致力于提升人格尊严，
因为他们也
贯彻着人人平等的思想。
穆斯林也持某种
自然法则论，
但那是一种与穆斯林宗教密切相关的
论调。
8
、
The US
Constitution
The US Constitution
consists of seven articles and 27 amendments. The
original seven
articles took effect in
1789. The 27 amendments were added to the
Constitution from 1791 to
1992.
The
first
ten
amendments
were
enacted
in
1791;
they
are
often
called
bill
of
rights.
美国宪法有
7
个法条及
27
个
修正案。最初的七条自
1789
年发生法律效力，后来的
27
个修正案是从
1791
< br>年到
1992
年间陆续添加的。
最初的
10
个修正案于
1791
年生效，
被称之
为“权利法案”
。目前来看，以后还会有更多的修正案。
People who don’t know
anything about civil procedure or property law can
recall the
basic elements of the
constitutional law: separation of powers; checks
and balances; judicial
review; due
process and equal protection of law; freedom of
speech, religion, and press. As
the
supreme law of the land, Constitutional Law texts
are generally divided into two parts.
The first part is about the allocation
of powers. This entails two basic principles of
American
Constitution:
separation
of
powers
and
division
of
powers.
Both
of
the
two
principles