Here are the most common vocabulary related to the topic ‘Law and order’. These words are collected from different sources and can be used in both productive sections of IELTS. They can also help you better understand the Reading section of the test.
- forensic (adj) – related to scientific methods of solving crimes, involving examining the objects or substances that are involved in the crime.
– Forensic examination revealed a large quantity of poison in the dead man’s stomach.
– This sort of indexical relationship, or seeming to be one, underlies the argumentative power of forensic evidence and eyewitness identifications. - probe (verb) – to try to discover information that other people do not want you to know, by asking questions carefully and not directly.
– Investigators are probing into new evidence in the case.
– Detectives questioned him for hours, probing for any inconsistencies in his story. - impartial (adj) – not supporting any of the sides involved in an argument.
– A trial must be fair and impartial.
– The jury has to give an impartial verdict after listening to all of the evidence. - victim (noun) – someone or something that has been hurt, damaged, or killed or has suffered, either because of the actions of someone or something else, or because of illness or chance.
– The children are the innocent victims of the fighting.
– We appear to have been the victims of a crime. - evidence (noun ) – anything that helps to prove that something is or is not true.
– The defendant was released after the prosecutor failed to produce enough evidence against him.
– The FBI has found no evidence of a crime.
– The weight of the evidence is against him. - capital punishment (noun) – punishment by death, as ordered by a legal system.
– Capital punishment has been abolished in some countries, likewise torture, confiscation, corporal punishment.
– According to one authority, capital punishment may be divided into two kinds—beheading and strangulation. - death penalty (noun) – the legal punishment of death for a crime.
– That I feel that the death penalty is not an answer to the problems at hand.
– She would like to see the return of the death penalty in Britain. - rule (verb) – to decide officially.
– Only the Appeal Court can rule on this point.
– The judge ruled for/in favour of/against the defendant.
– The government has ruled that the refugees must be deported. - corporal punishment (noun) – the physical punishment of people, especially of children, by hitting them.
– Corporal punishment was abolished in Britain in 1986.
– In 1987, California prohibited corporal punishment in schools. - petty crime (noun) – a type of crime that is not considered serious when compared with some other crimes.
– They got into trouble and began to get involved in petty crime.
– There is too much tolerance of petty crime. - pardon (verb) – to officially allow someone who has been found guilty of a crime to go free without being punished.
– Large numbers of political prisoners have been pardoned and released by the new president.
– The two spies were pardoned yesterday by the president. - clemency (noun) – an act of mercy by a person in authority toward someone who has committed a crime, esp. by reducing a punishment.
– The governor refused to grant him clemency, and he was executed at 9 a.m. yesterday.
– Our appeal for clemency has been considered carefully in this case. - wrongdoing (noun) – a bad or an illegal action
– She has strenuously denied any criminal wrongdoing.
– There is no evidence yet of any serious wrongdoing on her part.
