Law
US Criminal Law
US Criminal Law encompasses the body of laws that define and regulate conduct that is considered harmful to society. It includes statutes and regulations that outline the types of behavior that are prohibited, as well as the penalties for those who violate these laws. US Criminal Law covers a wide range of offenses, from minor infractions to serious felonies, and is enforced by various law enforcement agencies and the judicial system.
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10 Key excerpts on "US Criminal Law"
eBook - PDF- Richard Mann, Barry Roberts(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Crimes are prohibited and punished on grounds of public policy, which may include the protection and safeguarding of government (as in treason), human life (as in murder), or private property (as in larceny). Additional purposes for criminal law include deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution. Historically, criminal law was primarily common law. In the twenty-first century, however, criminal law is almost exclusively statutory. All states have enacted comprehensive criminal law statutes (or codes) cover- ing most, if not all, of the common law crimes. Since its promulgation in 1962, the American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code has played an important part in the widespread revision and codification of the substantive criminal law of the United States. Moreover, these stat- utes have made the number of crimes defined in criminal law far greater than the number of crimes defined under common law. Some codes expressly limit crimes to those the code includes, thus abolishing common law crimes. Nonetheless, some states do not define all crimes statuto- rily; therefore, the courts must rely on common law defi- nitions. Because there are no federal common law crimes, all federal crimes are statutory. Within recent times, the scope of the criminal law has increased greatly. The scope of traditional criminal behav- ior has been expanded by numerous regulations and laws, pertaining to nearly every phase of modern living, that contain criminal penalties. Typical examples in the field of business law are those laws concerning the licensing and conduct of a business, antitrust laws, and laws governing the sales of securities. Essential Elements [6-1a] In general, a crime consists of two elements: (1) the wrongful or overt act (actus reus) and (2) the criminal or mental intent (mens rea). For example, to support a lar- ceny conviction, it is not enough to show that the defen- dant stole another’s goods; it also must be established that he intended to steal the goods.
eBook - PDF- Thomas Gardner, Terry Anderson(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Melongo. 1 We discuss these issues later in this chapter. The United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. Orhan Cam/ShutterStock.com Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-300 4 PART 1: Basic Concepts of Criminal Law In this chapter we examine the basis for the power of states and the federal government to pass criminal laws, and the constitutional limitations on that power. IMPORTANT CONCEPTS IN CRIMINAL LAW A A Crime has been part of the human condition since people began to live in groups. Ancient documents indicate that conduct we now call murder, theft, or robbery was identified as criminal by civilizations that existed thousands of years ago. Criminal laws regulate human conduct and tell people what they cannot do and, in some in- stances, what they must do under certain circumstances. Though their content may have differed, all societies have had criminal codes regulating conduct. Democracies have always sought to translate their basic principles and ideals into achievable goals through a system of laws that balance the rights of individuals with the compelling needs of society as a whole. These goals include public order, domes- tic tranquility, and protection of the basic rights of individuals. Because governments in democracies are the servants and not the masters of the people, laws are seen as the product of the will of the people. Criminal justice systems in democracies operate most successfully when the majority of the people believe that laws are fair and that the system can operate efficiently and effectively. 2 The issue of what laws should be enacted often causes intense public debate. Laws are enacted by elected representatives of the people. They are enforced, administered, and interpreted by civil servants and elected officials in other branches of government. In the United States, those branches are as follows: 1.
eBook - PDF- Daniel E. Hall(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
1 Part Chapter 1: Introduction to the Legal System of the United States Chapter 2: Introduction to Criminal Law Chapter 3: The Ingredients of Crime: Thinking and Acting Chapter 4: Crimes Against the Person Chapter 5: Crimes Involving Property Chapter 6: Crimes Against the Public Chapter 7: Parties and Incomplete Crimes Chapter 8: Factual and Legal Defenses Chapter 9: Constitutional Defenses Criminal Law Copyright 2023 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Introduction to the Legal System of the United States Federalism Learning Objective: Describe federalism and explain its impact on criminal law and procedure. In this textbook, you will be introduced to two important and high-profile areas of U.S. law: criminal law and criminal procedure. As the idiom If it bleeds, it leads expresses, crime and the criminal justice system are popular fodder for journalists. Unfortunately, however, much of what appears in the news is wrong. As is commonly said today, it is “fake news.” The objective of this book—obviously—is to help you learn criminal law and procedure. But it is more than that. You should be a more informed member of the community and a more discerning observer of the criminal justice system when you complete this book. Criminal law doesn’t spring from the Cloud. It is part of a larger legal and political system that dates back nearly a thousand years. Therefore, this chapter begins by framing criminal law in its larger historic and political context.
eBook - PDFLaw
Made Simple
- D. L. A. Barker, C. F. Padfield(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Made Simple(Publisher)
12 CRIMINAL LAW 1. Definition of Crime Criminal law is concerned with conduct which the State considers should be punished, whereas civil law is concerned with private rights. A crime may be regarded as a public wrong; but conduct which is harmful to the public is not necessarily criminal. 'Crimes, then, are wrongs which the judges have held, or Parliament has from time to time laid down, are sufficiently injurious to the public to warrant the application of criminal procedure to deal with them.' (Smith and Hogan.) Nor is immoral conduct necessarily criminal; but conduct which would not be regarded as immoral may be criminal on grounds of social expediency. 'The domain of criminal jurisprudence can only be ascertained by examining what acts at any particular period are declared by the State to be crimes ...' (Lord Atkin.) This means that crime can only usefully be defined by reference to procedure: Ά crime (or offence) is a legal wrong that can be followed by criminal proceedings which may result in punishment.' (Glanville Williams). 2. Sources (a) Common Law. Many criminal offences were created by the common law courts and the definitions of some of these offences are to be found even today only in case law, e.g. murder, involuntary manslaughter, common assault. An offence remains a common law offence even when statute provides defences or penalties, e.g. Homicide Act, 1957. Today the courts have no power to create new offences; and this was acknowledged by the House of Lords in Knuller v. D.P.P. (1973). In an earlier case before the House of Lords, Shaw v. D.P.P. (1962), Lord Simonds L.C. seemed to be claiming otherwise when he stated that 'there remains in the courts of law a residual power to enforce the supreme and fundamental purpose of the law to conserve not only the safety and order but also the moral welfare of the state'. (b) Textbooks. These are not sources, but certain early works—e.g.
eBook - PDF- Joel Samaha(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Question • Do you believe this case involved unacceptable crimi- nal law making? Back up your answer with details from the section “Informal Discretionary Law Making.” Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 19 CRIMINAL LAW IN THE U.S. fEDERAL SYSTEM CRIMINAL LAW IN THE U.S. fEDERAL SYSTEM Until now, we’ve referred to criminal law in the singular. That’s inaccurate, and you’ll see this inaccuracy repeated often in the rest of the book because it’s conve- nient. But let’s clear up the inaccuracy. In our federal system, there are 52 criminal codes, one for each of the 50 states, one for the District of Columbia, and one for the U.S. criminal code. The U.S. government’s power is limited to crimes specifically related to national interests, such as crimes committed on military bases and other national property; crimes against federal officers; and crimes that are often difficult for one state to pros- ecute—for example, drug, weapons, organized and corporate crime, and crimes involv- ing domestic and international terrorism (Chapter 13). The rest of criminal law, which is most of it, is left to the state codes. These are the crimes against persons, property, and public order and morals in the special part of the criminal law (Chapters 9–12). So we have 52 criminal codes, each defining specific crimes and establishing gen- eral principles for the territory and people within it. And they don’t, in practice, define specific crimes the same. For example, in some states, to commit a burglary, you have to actually break into and then enter a building.
eBook - PDF- Raneta Mack(Author)
- 1999(Publication Date)
- Greenwood(Publisher)
Generally speaking, since there is no uniformity requirement among the various state criminal codes, each state is free to decide which statutory components to emphasize or deemphasize. Thus, each state, through its legislative process, is free to adapt its code in accordance with the changing nature of criminal conduct within its borders. FEDERAL CRIMINAL LAW Federal criminal law covers most of the same types of conduct included in state criminal codes. What distinguishes federal crimes from their state Page 7 counterparts is the requirement that, on the federal level, the criminal conduct must involve a “federal interest.” The federal interest provides the federal government with legal jurisdiction to prosecute the offense. For example, bank robbery becomes a federal crime if the robbery occurs at a federal bank (the federal interest). Similarly, if the victim of a homicide is a federal official or employee, then the federal homicide provisions apply. Additionally, if the criminal conduct extends beyond state borders (e.g., mailing fraudulent material from one state to another state, or mail fraud), then the federal government has jurisdiction because the conduct is said to affect interstate commerce. In addition to these traditional offenses, other highprofile federal criminal statutes were enacted because the federal government determined that certain criminal conduct was so widespread and harmful that federal efforts were necessary to combat the activity. Examples of these statutes include the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which is designed to eliminate longterm organized criminal activity; securities fraud statutes, which regulate insider trading; and environmental statutes, which criminalize certain conduct that is harmful to the environment. In terms of punishment, federal law provides that judges follow sentencing guidelines to reduce the potential for disparity in the sentencing process.
eBook - PDFLaw and Economics
An Introductory Analysis
- Werner Z. Hirsch(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
Key issues are whether penalties for those who are caught should be severe, in the hope of deterring others, and how the conflicting aims of punishment and rehabilitation should be resolved. This chapter intentionally omits consideration of victimless and white-collar crimes, because of their complexity. I shall attempt to deal with them, therefore, in a detailed, separate effort. To facilitate the understanding of criminal law, this chapter begins with a discussion of the premises and tenets on which it is based: what makes an act a crime, defenses that may be employed by those accused of crime, and the imposition of penalties and sanctions. The discussion also touches on the economic rationale of these premises. Next, a compre-hensive theoretical framework is presented, within which crime, its moti-vation and deterrence, can be given economic content, and the role and effect of criminal law can be evaluated. BASIC LEGAL PREMISES OF CRIMINAL LAW THE LEGAL DEFINITION OF A CRIME American criminal law is founded upon certain basic premises concern-ing what constitutes a crime. Thus, a crime consists of an act, a mental state, concurrence of the act and the mental state, and causation of harm. Crimes are socially responded to by prosecution and punishment. Underlying the criminal law in both its individual and social aspects is an economic rationale, which I shall examine next. As argued in Chapter I, the destruction of initial entitlements by acts that meet the requirements for a crime is protected by criminal laws. Society, since it places a high premium on human life and on respect for the prevailing property rules, is unwilling to tolerate the negative exter-nalities imposed by persons who commit a crime. Opposing the unleash-ing of such externalities, society refuses to convert property rules into liability rules and merely to seek compensation for the victim. Instead, for the sake of deterring future externalities of this sort, criminal sanc-tions are imposed.
eBook - PDFCrime and Law
Theory, Research, and Policy
- Anne Wade(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Society Publishing(Publisher)
The Crime and Law: Theory, Research, and Policy 116 next question not adequately addressed in criminal law is its voice, its tone, and its terms within which such laws should cater for those that it supposes to protect. 5.3.1. The Legal Voice Some studies will claim that the law does not address the citizens. It is a code that works in the courtrooms, outlining actions that the court should follow by defining punishments, and when certain conditions have been met to justify a case (Hart, 1994). The law should also be made with the citizens in mind so that they can also know and be knowledgeable on some of its aspects such as whom it holds liable for misconduct or criminal liabilities. Holding such a view looks like the truth in some legal aspects which include criminal law (sentencing, legal exceptions) that seem to be directed to the court system and not the citizens. Scholars say that is not the convincing view of the whole legal spectrum; they say that the law speaks for all citizens. The voice of the law gets louder if you find yourself on the wrong side of the law as a defendant, when called upon to answer charges of criminal conduct, and when the law is prescribed to mete punishment on the wrongdoing for which you are being tried. When defining the conducts that should be criminal and those that are legally permissible, the law is seen to speak to all citizens concerning what we may or may not do. However, there are some aspects of the substantive legal procedures that define offenses within criminal law that are not addressing all citizenry but to those that engage in proscribed acts within those laws. Like in the case of traffic laws which only addresses drivers, those who deal with shares in the stock exchange are addressed by the insider trading laws, etc.
eBook - PDF- Carlson Anyangwe(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Langaa RPCIG(Publisher)
57 Part II Application of the Criminal Law The basic principles governing the application of the criminal law in this country are these. Firstly, all persons are subject to the criminal law. 1 Secondly, municipal criminal law is subject to international law and to all treaties duly promulgated and published. 2 Thirdly, the general part of the criminal law governs any other criminal provision, whether it is contained in the Penal Code or not, save as otherwise provided by law as an exception that adds to or derogates from the general part. 3 Fourthly, any general principle of the criminal law that is not contained in Book I of the Penal Code must yield to a particular provision governing the same matter but which is inconsistent with the said general principle. 4 1 Penal Code, s.1. Parliamentary immunity or head-of-state immunity only means that the beneficiary of any such immunity may not be arrested or prosecuted while covered by the terms of the immunity. 2 Penal Code, s.2(1). International law, whether conventional or customary, trumps municipal law whenever they clash. 3 Penal Code, s.2(2). 4 Penal Code, s.2(3). 58 59 Chapter 5 The Principle of Legality: A Safeguard of Individual Liberty The principle of legality is the root principle that underlies the administration of the criminal law in all modern systems of law. It forms part of the rule of law originally adumbrated by European political thinkers of the 17 th and 18 th centuries like Montesquieu and Beccaria who were very dissatisfied with the harshness and arbitrariness of both the political and criminal justice systems of the time. This fundamental principle is often expressed in the following Latin maxim, nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege. There is no crime, no punishment, except in accordance with law. There can be no crime or penalty without law making it so.
eBook - PDF- Dunia Zongwe, Prince Zongwe(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Langaa RPCIG(Publisher)
A crime differs from a delict in that the former is a wrong committed against the state, which represents society, and that the latter constitutes a wrong committed against an individual. Because what people considers ‘criminal’ varies from society to society, conduct that the lawmaker regards as criminal in one country will not be so regarded in another. This realization explains why prostitution amounts to a crime in some countries and why it does not in others. Over time, countless communities, societies, and countries have changed their perspectives on the criminality of conduct, such as abortion; euthanasia or mercy-killing; suicide; passion killing; breastfeeding in public; using, possessing or selling drugs or liquor; drunkenness; road traffic; violence; blasphemy; incest; fornication; sodomy; homosexuality; adultery; pornography; polygamy; sado-masochism; prostitution; public display of affection (for example, kissing); nudity; indecency; age of consent, child support, juvenile offenses, child support, obscenity; hate speech; vagrancy; and gambling. These instances of questionable conduct embody concerns about major aspects of human communities, namely life, religion, sex and sexuality, vulnerability, harm, and taste. 24 3 Understanding why we criminalize Why do we punish certain types of conduct and not others? Husak remarks that the single most helpful means to check whether a law is criminal consists in ascertaining whether it subjects persons to punishment by the state. 6 While it indicates a criminal sanction, punishment alone does not help answer the question as to why the law-making authority came up with that criminal law in the first place. Lawyers need a principled attitude towards the philosophies and the rationales that breathe life into criminal prohibitions. 3.1 The guiding rationales Criminalization designates the process whereby a law-making authority turns an activity or conduct of which it disapproves into a crime.
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