Crime & Punishment

Matching Exercise

Match each utterance with its conversational function.

  1. Asking someone for their opinion about a topic
  2. Delaying strategies
  3. Presenting a number of arguments
  4. Giving your opinion about a topic
  5. Agreeing
  6. Disagreeing
  7. Countering
  8. Logical argument
  9. Clarification
  10. Expressing solutions and alternatives

1. If many prisoners reoffend after leaving prison, it suggests that punishment alone isn't solving the problem.

2. I agree that rehabilitation should be an important part of the justice system.

3. What do you think is the best way to reduce crime?

4. But if serious offenders know that they will receive only a short sentence, couldn't that weaken the deterrent effect of the law?

5. I believe that preventing crime is generally more effective than simply increasing prison sentences.

6. Do you mean that you think prison should be abolished altogether?

7. That's a complicated issue. There are several ways of looking at it.

8. We could consider alternatives such as community sentences, restorative justice and rehabilitation programmes.

9. I don't agree that longer prison sentences necessarily reduce crime.

10. We need to consider punishment, rehabilitation, education, poverty and the causes of crime.