General English Level 5 GELEV5 Unit 04 Topic 04.doc  READING 04 They’ve gone soft on crime In recent years the crime rate has increased, and many people believe punishments are not severe enough. Read this letter to the editor about crime and sentencing. Sentences are too lenient! The crime rate has risen by 22 per cent in this country over the last ten years and what are we doing about it? Helping the criminal it seems! While the rate of robberies and drug-related crimes is much higher, the length of sentences handed out to offenders has decreased. I’m extremely angry about this situation since it does nothing to help prevent crime. Last month a man was given two years’ jail for committing an armed robbery in which a bank teller was shot and badly injured. This infuriates me! The teller is still in hospital fighting for his life with a gunshot wound to the head and the man who committed the robbery only gets two years in jail! While I believe that we do need to look into the causes of crime, for example poverty and lack of economic opportunities, I’m fed up with social workers and some politicians who make excuses for criminals. We need to be tougher on the people who commit these crimes! And what about white-collar crime? These criminals surely don’t have the excuse of poverty. The rate of white-collar crime in this country has increased dramatically over the last ten years, yet we are doing very little to help stop these crimes. Big bosses these days think they can get away with stealing millions of dollars from their companies and the truth is – they can! We need much stricter laws controlling companies’ profits and the taxation they pay. And we need tougher penalties for those who steal money from their companies. It’s not fair that ordinary people like you and I must pay the price for the crimes of big business and cannot even walk the streets and feel safe. We need to create a world where all people can feel safe and where criminals – whether white-collar or other types of robber - are given the sentences they deserve. James Li 143 QUESTLANGUAGE