IELTS - Fixed punishments nevertheless of circumstances?

Should there be a fixed punishment for each type of crime?

Some people believe that there should be fixed punishments for each type of crime. Others, however, argue that the circumstances of an individual crime, and the motivation for committing it, should always be taken into account when deciding on the punishment

Discuss both these views and give your own opinions.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.

Crime and punishment have always sparked debate in human history, and criminal laws are always being challenged and revised to suit the current societies. Regarding this matter, some people maintains that convicts of the same crime should receive the same punishment, while others argue for the circumstances and motivations in each and every crime to be considered in a trial. Although I agree with the latter, there are strong arguments for both views.

Fixed punishments ensure fairness for victims of each type of crime. However different the circumstances of these crimes may be, the damage that the defendant caused to the plaintiff is the same, as agreed by the jury. A case in point is the controversial death of a child in Vietnam, caused by a man who failed to comply with transportation safety standards. The public was confused how his duty to the country made up for his fatal negligence, seeing the devastating effect on the family was not reduced by having their son killed from a veteran. Another point is that the same-punishment law can negate corruption in court. If a criminal resort to connections and bribery, the proposed zero-tolerance policy will increase the chance that he will nevertheless be brought to justice.

However, no crimes are exactly the same, and taking that into account would make a lawsuit more nuanced and acceptable. Just as juries are picked from the community, the verdicts are expected to socially approveable, which absolutely requires empathy. For example, a person delivering drugs once under death threats being treated the same as a member of a drug trafficking ring would cause quite a stir in communities. To make sure lawsuits are being carried out sensibly, we need to allow for fair judgement of everyone involved, who likely have different circumstances and motivation. If the same punishment is applicable to every crime then the judges and jury would be redundant, as only the police would be needed to gather evidence and accuse someone of a crime. This process would go against the gradual development of our law systems.

To conclude, a criminal case should always be processed with as much information as possible, since considering different circumstances are necessary to deliver justice to each and every person involved. It is this flexibility that makes us human and allows for large, interconnected, and supportive communities.

(390 words)

Please give me feedback on my Task 2 essay! I'm going to take a computer-delivered IELTS test, so I went a bit over the word limit because I can type faster.

Just because you can type faster does not mean that you should write 400 words. The timer is still set to 40 minutes, the requirement that you outline, draft, review, revise, and finalize the essay does not change. Don't be cocky. You will end up freezing at the exam center if you are too over confident. It is important that you still write using the 40 minute timer. You will notice that based on all the things you have to do, you cannot write 400 words for the essay, no matter how fast you can type. This is not a typing test, it is an English usage accuracy test. Focus on the right things.

Your second paragraph started out strong, but when you discussed the examples, the presentation fell apart. Again, your focus on typing speed and just typing, instead of typing to make yourself understood, is what caused the confusion and weakness of the paragraph presentation. You lost track of what you wanted to say properly in English and began simply translating from your native language to English. That, always spells a disaster. Your language, when translated to English will always have differences that you need to spot and correct errors for coherence and cohesive purposes, not to mention GRA requirements.

You did not properly use commas in the paragraphs. You should also focus on using the correct punctuation marks. Like I said, this is not about speed typing. This is about accuracy of the use of the English language in an academic setting. Run-on sentences are disallowed.

Wow I never noticed that. Thanks Holt!