Criminal Justice Today an Introductory Text for the 21St Century

Criminal Justice Today An Introductory Text for the 21st Century

CHAPTER 4

Criminal Law

• Key functions of laws . Regulate relationships between people and between parties . Channel and constrain behavior . Empower individuals while contributing to public order . Protect philosophical, moral, economic perspectives of creators

continued on next slide Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. for the 21st Century, 14e All Rights Reserved Frank Schmalleger Nature and Purpose of Law

• Key functions of laws . Maintain values, uphold patterns of social privilege . Sustain existing power relationships . Support system for punishment and rehabilitation of offenders

• Statutory law . "Law on the books" . Penal code • Written form of criminal law . Case law • Law resulting from judicial decisions • Common law . Traditional body of unwritten historical precedents

• Belief that an orderly society must be governed by established principles and known codes that are applied uniformly and fairly to all of its members

• Key elements . Freedom from private lawlessness . High degree of objectivity . Legal ideas/devices for attaining individual and group objectives . Limits on governmental power

• Body of rules and regulations that define and specify the nature of and punishments for offenses of a public nature, or for wrongs committed against the state or society • Violations result in punishment upon conviction in a court of law.

• Built on constitutional principles, operates within established set of procedures • Includes statutory (written law) and case law

• Substantive criminal law . Describes what constitutes particular crimes and specifies the appropriate punishment for each offense • Procedural law . Rules determining the proceedings by which legal rights are enforced

• Governs relationships between/among people, businesses/organizations, government agencies • Violation may result in civil suit seeking compensation. • Violation of criminal law may be a contract violation or tort.

• Regulations governments create to control activities of industries, businesses, individuals • Most breaches of administrative law are not crimes but criminal law and administrative regulations may overlap.

• Law of precedent • Comes from judicial decisions • Stare decisis . Recognize previous decisions to guide future deliberations

• Felonies • Misdemeanors • Offenses • Treason • Espionage • Inchoate offenses

Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. for the 21st Century, 14e All Rights Reserved Frank Schmalleger Figure 4-2 General Categories of Crime Source: Pearson Education, Inc.

• Serious crimes . Punishable by death or incarceration for at least one year . Includes murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, and arson • Convicted felons typically lose certain privileges upon release from prison.

• Relatively minor crimes . Petty theft, simple assault, breaking and entering, being disorderly in public, writing bad checks, etc. • Usually punishable by incarceration for up to one year, usually in a local confinement facility

• Most offenders receive suspended sentences involving fine and supervised probation.

• Minor violations of the law that are less serious than misdemeanors . Jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk, littering, and certain traffic offenses . Offenders are normally ticketed and released. • Also known as infractions

• A U.S. citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the United States of America • Also, the attempt to overthrow the government of the society of which one is a member

• Gathering, transmitting, or losing information related to the national defense, in such a manner that the information becomes available to enemies of the U.S. and may be used to their advantage • Key difference between treason and espionage is that espionage may be committed by non-US citizens.

• Incomplete or partial offenses • Offenses that have not been fully carried out . Conspiracies . Attempts to commit a crime

• Essence of crime . Three conjoined elements • Actus reus • Mens rea • Concurrence

• "Guilty act" • Individual must commit voluntary act for it to be considered a crime. . Crimes of commission . Crimes of omission • Threatening to act can be a crime. • Thinking alone is not enough to make it a crime.

• Defendant's mental state at time of crime • Four main types . Purposeful (intentional) . Knowing . Reckless . Negligent

• Motive is not the same as mens rea. • Strict liability crimes do not require a culpable mental state.

• Requires that the act and the mental state occur together in order for a crime to take place • One cannot occur before the other.

• Causation . Concurrence of guilty mind and criminal act may cause harm (legal cause). • Resulting harm . Harm occurs in all crimes. • Principle of legality . No crime without a law defining it

• Principle of punishment . No crime where punishment not specified in the law • Necessary attendant circumstances . Additional elements necessary for conviction

• Elements of a crime are specific legal aspects of a criminal offense that must be proven to obtain a conviction. • For example, the elements of first- degree murder are: . Unlawful killing . Of a human being . Intentionally . With planning or malice aforethought

• Corpus delicti . "The body of the crime" • Person cannot be tried for a crime until it has been shown the crime occurred. • Key aspects . A certain result has been produced. . A person is criminally responsible for its production.

• Alibi • Justification • Excuse • Procedural defense

Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. for the 21st Century, 14e All Rights Reserved Frank Schmalleger Figure 4-5 Types of Defenses to a Criminal Charge Source: Pearson Education, Inc.

• Defendant could not have committed the offense because s/he was somewhere else at the time of the crime • Based upon premise that defendant is truly innocent • Best supported by witnesses and documentation

• Self-defense • Defense of others • Defense of home and property • Consent • Necessity • Resisting unlawful arrest

• Duress • Age • Mistake • Involuntary intoxication • Unconsciousness

• Provocation • Insanity • Diminished capacity • Mental incompetence

• Entrapment • Double jeopardy • Collateral estoppel • Selective prosecution • Denial of a speedy trial • Prosecutorial misconduct • Police fraud