经济学人:严厉的爱 死刑该不该废除(1)

 　　Britain 英国

　　The Death Penalty: Tough love 死刑：严厉的爱

　　Juries acquit¹ if sentences are harsh. 陪审团宣判是否裁决过于严厉。

　　Though no one has been executed in Britain for over 50 years, until 1998 someone convicted of high treason or “piracy with violence” could in theory be put to death. 尽管英国已超过50年没有处死过一位犯人，但直到1998年有些犯有严重叛国罪的以及暴力海盗行为罪的罪犯理论上来说都可以被判处死刑。

　　The law is now clearly against capital punishment, but Britons are not. 如今法律明言禁止死刑可英国人却不完全反对。

　　Fully² one-third would like the death penalty to be brought back; the leader of the populist UK Independence Party has suggested a referendum on the matter. 整整三分之一的英国人支持恢复死刑；英国独立党民粹主义领袖建议就这个议题进行公投。

　　Yet research presented at this week's Royal Economic Society conference suggests that if you really want to be tough on criminals, killing³ off capital punishment makes sense. 然而公布在本周皇家经济学会议上的研究表明如果你真的想让罪犯获得严厉惩罚，废除死刑才是行之有效的方法。

　　Anna Bindler and Randi Hjalmarsson, both of the University of Gothenburg, examined over 200,000 cases from the Old Bailey criminal court in London from 1715 to 1900. 来自哥德堡大学的Anna Bindler 和Randi Hjalmarsson查阅了伦敦中央刑事法庭(Old Bailey)自1715至1900年的超过二十万起案件。

　　During this period capital punishment was abolished for many offences, from counterfeiting⁴ money (in 1832) to robbery (in 1837) . 在这段时期，针对许多违法行为废除了死刑，包括制造假币(1832年)和抢劫(1837年)。

　　Making the necessary statistical⁵ controls, the authors looked at the change in the likelihood of conviction for offences that were no longer capital. 通过这些必要的统计管理，作者发现：由于一些违法行为将不再判处死刑，使得定罪率发生了变化。

1 acquit   

vt.宣判无罪；(oneself)使(自己)表现出

参考例句：

• That fact decided the judge to acquit him.那个事实使法官判他无罪。
• They always acquit themselves of their duty very well.他们总是很好地履行自己的职责。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 counterfeiting   

n.伪造v.仿制，造假( counterfeit的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was sent to prison for counterfeiting five-dollar bills. 他因伪造5美元的钞票被捕入狱。 来自辞典例句
• National bureau released securities, certificates with security anti-counterfeiting paper technical standards. 国家质量技术监督局发布了证券、证件用安全性防伪纸张技术标准。 来自互联网

5 statistical   

adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• He showed the price fluctuations in a statistical table.他用统计表显示价格的波动。
• They're making detailed statistical analysis.他们正在做具体的统计分析。