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CRIME
Pre-reading questions
1. Name three ways by which the police can find a criminal.
2. Do you think computers have helped in the process of
detecting criminals? How / Why not?
ADVANCES IN INVESTIGATION AND DETECTION
A man received a life sentence for murder in London last month.
What is unusual about this is that the murder took
place 29 years ago. At the time the murder was committed, the
man, Anthony Richardson, was questioned by the
police, but their investigations did not reveal enough evidence
for them to charge him. He claimed to have an alibi
for the time of the crime.
Richardson clearly thought he had got away with the murder. The
victim, who was strangled, had been his girlfriend
at one time and he continued to be friendly with her family
after her death. In all these years he has shown no signs
of any guilt on his conscience.
His conviction was partly due to modern advances in crime
detection and partly to chance. Genetic fingerprinting,
based on DNA patterns, is now an important part of forensic
science, but it was not developed in the UK until after
the murder. The process depends on obtaining a sample of the
suspects blood, saliva, skin, or other material that
contains body cells, and therefore DNA. It has been discovered
that the number and pattern of certain repeated
sequences in human DNA appear to be unique to each individual,
making it a valuable and accurate means of
identification.
Computers also played a part in Richardsons eventual conviction.
When he was convicted of a minor theft last year,
details of his DNA were automatically included on a police
database. At the time the police were already re-investigating the
1983 murder, and Richardsons possible part in it, following a
telephone tip-off from a member of
the public.
A forensic sample taken from the murder scene was analysed,
using DNA profiling, and the analysis revealed that
the DNA matched Richardsons. He had left some body samples at
the scene of the crime and this is what led to his
conviction so many year later.
This has been a great victory for modern forensic techniques. It
was the murderers own body that proved him
guilty.
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VocabularyTry to complete the table without looking at the
text:
1. ____________________ The process of analysing DNA patterns,
which are unique to individuals, using bodytissues, such as blood
and saliva, in order to find out someones identity, used
particularly to find out if someone has committed a crime.
2. ____________________ To carry out a careful enquiry or
examination into the facts of a situation, event, etc.to try and
find out the truth.
3. ____________________ To be identical to, or extremely similar
to, something.
4. ____________________ To believe that someone may have
committed a crime or done something wrong,without having proof of
this.
5. ____________________ To do something wrong and not be
punished for doing so.
6. ____________________ To do something that is considered
wrong, often something that is illegal.
7. ____________________ To kill someone by squeezing their
throat so that they cannot breathe.
8. ____________________ The process of investigating crime or
wrongdoing, collecting evidence and finding thecriminals.
9. ____________________ Connected with the application of
scientific tests to the investigation of a crime.
10. ____________________ Proof that someone accused of a crime
could not have done it because they were
elsewhere at the time of the crime.
11. ____________________ The chemical at the centre of the cells
of living things which carries geneticinformation (deoxyribonucleic
acid).
12. ____________________ To state officially, as in a court of
law, that someone is guilty of a certain crime.
13. ____________________ To examine something in detail,
especially by separating it into its parts, in order todiscover
more about it.
14. ____________________ When the police accuse someone formally
of having committed a crime.
15. ____________________ Secret information given to someone in
order to help them, especially informationgiven to the police about
a crime that has happened or that is being planned.
16. ____________________ A punishment for a serious crime given
by a court of law, by which a person spends
the rest of their life in prison.
17. ____________________ A small amount of a substance, etc.
which can be used as an example to find outinformation about the
substance, etc. as a whole.
18. ____________________ The clear liquid that is produced in
your mouth.
B) Match the words in Column A with their meaning in Column
B.
Column A Column B
1. committed A. luck
2. investigations B. proof
3. evidence C. guilty verdict
4. charge D. investigated
5. conviction E. carried out
6. chance F. enquiries
7. sample G. accuse
8. analysed H. specimen
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C) Match the words in Column A with their opposite meaning in
Column B.
Column A Column B
1. continued A. fully
2. partly B. stopped
3. unique C. innocent
4. individual D. common
5. accurate E. earlier
6. included F. group
7. later G. excluded
8. guilty H. false
Reading Comprehension
In pairs, discuss the following questions, considering the
text:
1. what made the author say that Richardson did not show any
signs of guilt?
2. Name some of the samples used for genetic fingerprinting.
3. Why did the police re-open the murder case?
