ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE GENERAL ASPECTS OF CRIMINAL LAW. Name: Period: Row:

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1 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE GENERAL ASPECTS OF CRIMINAL LAW Name: Period: Row: I. INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINAL LAW A. Understanding the complexities of criminal law 1. The justice system in the United States has been established by our bodies to establish classifications of crimes based on, to distinguish between types of crimes, offenses, and wrongs. 2. Criminal defendants have many more protections than those who commit or wrongs, because criminal defendants have considerably more to lose through criminal punishment. a. This is why the burden of in a criminal trial is "beyond a reasonable doubt," but in civil trials it is percent plus a feather or by a "preponderance of the evidence." B. Defining crimes, and criminal conduct 1. Most people informally define a crime as an act that is deeply wrong, that is worthy of strong community, and that calls for a sanction. 2. Formal definitions of crime result from the criminal law of federal, state, or local legal systems. a. What is truly a crime is any act or that is forbidden by the law as a of the public interest. b. A crime involves social harm and requires vindication through a public process. c. It is prosecuted by attorneys who represent the community as a whole, not the individuals who have been by the specific offense. (1) Criminal cases have names such as the State of Maine v. Jones or United States v. Smith. (2) This reflects that the is accused of violating the laws of an entire society and must answer to that in return. 3. An important aspect of crime and criminal conduct is. a. Whereas a person who commits a civil wrong may have to pay damages to the wrong, a person convicted of a crime is. b. Punishment can take many forms, all of which carry one essential characteristic that distinguishes criminal from civil wrongdoing: (1) The condemnation and that accompanies the conviction of a crime. 4. Interpretation of how a law is written. a. of the Law is the exact way the law is written or what it says. b. of the Law legislative intent why was the law written? Police must use common sense approach 5. The and of civil judgments and criminal sanctions help to explain why they are handled though separate court ystems. C. Civil wrongs or torts 1. A civil wrong can be classified as a, which is a wrongful act that results in an injury or a breach of contract that leaves the injured party entitled to. Copyright Public Services Educational Materials MODULE 9C

2 2. Criminal and civil law both involve holding individuals for actions that the law deems inappropriate. 3. There are two significant differences between the consequences of criminal liability and civil liability. a. First, a crime is committed against the at large, but a tort is a wrong against specific only. (1) The pursuit of a tort remedy involves no government action being brought against individual defendants. (2) Action is brought by citizens against another individual or individuals who have violated civil law. (3) A action lawsuit involves several people taking legal action against a person or corporation who has them. b. Second, the consequences of tort liability are less than the consequences of criminal liability. (1) A party involved in a civil suit does not face the possibility of, such as loss of liberty or life. (2) Punitive damages in a civil action is not considered equivalent to or the stigma of conviction of a crime. 4. An individual's single act may constitute both a crime and a tort and thus may be punishable under criminal and civil law. II. STATE AND FEDERAL CRIMES A. Every state and local government, along with the federal government, has a set of laws defining which acts are considered as offenses. B. The federal government and individual state legistative bodies may criminal laws. 1. Some acts, such as simple assault, conduct, drunk driving, and, can be prosecuted only in a state court. a. Exception: when they occur on property; such as a national park or a military installation. 2. Acts, such as failure to pay federal, mail fraud, espionage, and international smuggling, can be prosecuted only in a federal court. 3. Crimes such as illegal of dangerous drugs and bank robbery, can violate both state and federal law and can be in either state or federal court. III. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS A. A crime is an act that the government forbids and that the government can punish. 1. Almost all crimes require an act, accompanied by a state of mind. a. The guilty state of mind means that the act must be done intentionally, knowingly, or willfully. b. These two requirements are called criminal and criminal. 2. In most cases, mere carelessness is not considered a guilty state of mind. a. For example, accidentally leaving a stove on that causes a fire would not constitute a crime of arson. b. There is an act (burning another person's property) but the guilty state of mind ( ) is absent. B. Basic elements or requirements necessary to establish criminal culpability ( ). 2

3 1. Criminal liability requires a, or unity, of two general criteria: a. First, there needs to be an act or element, known as the reus or the criminal act. (1) The physical act must be voluntary and has to cause social harm. b. Second, there needs to be a certain mental state or, known as the rea. This mental state is often reffered to as criminal intent. C. A person commits an act based on one of four types of mental states. 1. Acting with purpose: a. The person acts purposely with respect to the expected or. (1) It is the voluntary wish to act in a certain way or a certain result. (2) A man who buys a gun and ammunition, points the gun at a victim, and fires the gun has a purpose to kill the victim. 2. Acting knowingly: a. A person knowingly causes a result if they know or are practically certain that their will cause this result. (1) A person fires 50 rounds into a crowd of people and kills five persons. They knowingly killed the victims if they were or practically certain that firing the weapon would likely in one or more deaths. 3. Acting recklessly: a. A person acts recklessly if they ignore a substantial and unjustified risk that a certain circumstance exists or will result from the conduct. b. A risk is considered and unjustified if a reasonable law-abiding citizen considers it a clear from how a reasonable person would behave. 4. Acting Negligently: a. A person acts negligently if they are aware that a substantial and risk exists or will result from the negligent conduct and to act anyway. b. As with recklessness, the risk involved for negligence must be substantial and unjustifiable. c. The difference between negligence and recklessness is that the reckless person consciously the risk, but a negligent person does so unknowingly. (1) A jury determines whether someone is by deciding whether the risk taken would have been taken by a person in the same situation. D. A person who commits a single act can be held to answer for both a criminal and civil wrong. 1. Example: John purposely sets fire to Tanya's store. a. The state may file charges against Paul for the statutory offense of arson. b. Tanya may also bring a separate civil action (lawsuit) against John to the fire damages to her store. E. Motive is the reason why the a person performs the act. 1. Motive usually means the that prompts a person to the act. 3

4 a. Motive is not an required to be proven in order to obtain a conviction for a criminal offense. b. Motive is often important as a matter of because it may help to identify the perpetrator of a crime or explain a suspect may have acted in a certain way. (1) In murder, the motive is the a person kills someone (for revenge, to obtain money, etc.). F. Intent is a person s conscious desire to commit an act and is called Mens rea. 1. Mens rea is that state of mind that a person has at the that he or she does the act or acts that constitute the of a crime. 2. Mens rea is also referred to as the guilty mind or a persons in committing an act. 3. Mens rea or guilty state of mind deals with the level of involved in performing an act. a. Was the act done intentionally or in a reckless manner? (1) State of mind is what a crime from a civil tort (wrong). 4. There are three types of intent (state of mind) that can be involved in proving a persons in committing a crime. a. General intent - also called intent. (1) Legal interpretation: a person is presumed to intend the consequences of his voluntary act. In the case of armed robbery, the intent is obvious by by the action involved, and what is said during the crime. (2) Criminal intent can involve nothing more than the intent to commit the act of whether one knows the act is wrong. Ignorance of the law no one) b. Specific intent is the mental to accomplish a specific act by law. (1) Specific intent cannot be proved just from the commission of the general act listed in the statute. It must be proved apart from the physical of the criminal act. (2) Specific intent is a special intent in the mind of the perpetrator, and it is an apart from the physical elements of the crime. (3) The most common usage of "specific intent" is intent to cause the result, careless of the, or gross negligence. (4) Larceny or theft, for example, requires the taking and away of the property of another, and the defendant's mental state as to this act must be established. In addition it must be shown that there was an " to steal" the property. (5) Specific intent is the type of intent to prove because it is not always easy to the intent from the action performed. c. Transferred intent holds a person criminally liable even when the of his or her action is not what the individual actually intended. (1) If a person intends to harm one person, but the harmful action injures or kills another, the required criminal element of intent instead applies to the harm committed against the victim. 4

5 (2) A man fires a gun out of his car window with the intent of killing a rival gang member, but the bullet misses the gang member and kills a baby, he is guilty under the of transferred intent. G. A few crimes are called strict offenses. 1. These crimes do not require a guilty state of mind. a. The act itself is criminal, of the knowledge or intent of the person committing the act. (1) Example: the law makes it a strict liability crime to sell alcoholic beverages to minors. (2) This is true regardless of whether or not the seller knew the buyer was. 2. Most often, strict liability statutes are limited to crimes that don't carry penalties or to crimes that are part of a larger attempt to regulate some area of conduct. IV. GENERAL RULES OF CRIMINAL LAW A. Classification of specific conduct as being criminal has significance for two reasons. 1. First, only crimes can result in loss of through incarceration. 2. Second, civil offenses, in contrast, may result in damages but not incarceration. B. The United States Constitution and the constitutions of individual states require that special and be afforded to an accused criminal. 1. This can be seen in several specific Amendments in the Bill of Rights, such as: a. The Fifth Amendment's protection against and double jeopardy. b. The Sixth Amendment's rights to a speedy and trial, trial by jury, the confrontation and cross-examination of witnesses, and counsel. c. The Eighth Amendment's protection against bail, excessive fines, and and unusual punishment. d. The Fourteenth Amendment's right to due process of law to both the federal government and state governments. C. The most common way to classify crimes is according to their punishment. Crimes can be broken into major categories: felonies, misdemeanors, and petty offenses. 1. A felony is any serious crime that is punishable by more than a year of in a state penitentiary or by death. a. Felonies include, but are not limited to, various degrees of, rape, robbery, possession or distribution of illegal narcotics, and theft. b. A crime does not have to be or even be perpetrated against a specific individual victim to constitute a felony. (1) White-collar crime covers several types of felonies relating to in commercial matters and is generally nonviolent. 5

6 c. The majority of modern jurisdictions divide felonies into various categories or, in order to treat some offenses as more serious than others. (1) In homicide cases, a person may be charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter in jurisdictions that make these distinctions. The reason for these distinctions is the level of. 2. Modern law defines a misdemeanor as a crime that is less serious than a felony and is usually punishable by, penalties, or of less than one year. a. Misdemeanors include offenses like and disorderly conduct. b. A person who is convicted of a misdemeanor and incarcerated usually serves his or her sentence in a local or county jail up to year. c. Punishment may also include in-patient drug rehabilitation programs. 3. A petty offense is any crime involving very minor misconduct. a. Petty offenses often consist of violations that protect the welfare. b. They are usually called violations or rather than crimes. (1) A common example of a petty offense is a minor violation. (2) Petty offenses are usually not punishable by incarceration, But by monetary fines or community service requirements. (3) The attached to a conviction for a petty offense is usually minimal. D. In modern law, the line drawn between felonies and misdemeanors can be quite unclear. 1. This is partly because many have enacted laws that allow a number of offenses to be as felonies or misdemeanors, depending on the circumstances. 2. Some that a prosecutor may consider in deciding whether to charge an as a felony or a misdemeanor can include: a. Prior offenses committed by the accused. b. of the offense. c. The number of victims involved. d. The of the perpetrator. 3. In bargaining, a defense attorney will often attempt to reduce a felony to a misdemeanor when this exists. E. Crimes are made up of elements. 1. In addition to proving any state of mind required, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that every of the crime was committed. a. Example: robbery is defined as the unlawful taking and carrying away of goods or money from someone's person by force or intimidation (fear). b. The elements of robbery are: (1) the taking and away of goods or money, (2) the from someone's person, and (3) by the use of force or. 6

7 V. THE ACTUS REUS (CRIMINAL ACT) OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY A. The actus reus is the physical action that a person must take toward the completion of the crime in order to be responsible for a criminal offense. 1. The actus reus element is any act or omission containing the ingredients of and social. a. In order to be responsible for a particular crime, a person must in some way the act required to meet the elements for that crime. b. The actus reus is different from, desires, or. (1) A person may wish to commit a crime and may about that crime often, but until he or she actually carries out that action, the crime has not been committed. B. Actus reus usually consists of a action. 1. A person is usually not responsible for an action over which he or she had no control unless it was. a. For the act to be, the defendant must have possessed sufficient free will to exercise and be responsible for his or her conduct. b. If a person has acted voluntarily and later the act, he or she is still held responsible. 2. Conditions such as mental illness or extreme youth can diminish a persons criminal responsibility. 3. To fully understand, it is important to understand the difference between voluntary actions and mere thoughts. a. A person cannot be punished for about committing a crime. b. If a person actually acts on that thought and commits the acts connected to the thought, they will be liable for the committed. C. Criminal negligence and omissions as acts 1. Omissions are legally viewed as actions that can lead to criminal, usually in one of two situations. a. The first situation occurs where the definition of a crime specifficaly an omission as punishable. (1) Examples: failure to register for the or failure to file an income tax return. b. The second situation occurs where a person has an duty to act in some way but fails to do so, and such failure causes a criminal result. (1) Example: laws require parents and legal guardians to take care of children in a way that will not injure them or their well being. If a parent stopped feeding a child and that child died (b) from starvation, that parent would be criminally liable. The omission of care for a child would constitute the actus reus of the crime. 2. A legal duty to act can arise from a. a. There are legal duties in relationships between a parent and a child or between a and a patient. b. A legal duty may also be imposed by law, such as the requirement that a must stop and help if he or she is involved in an automobile accident. c. It can also arise from a relationship, such as that imposed upon a lifeguard or. 7

8 3. Even though most people would feel to act if someone's life were in danger, there are numerous judicial decisions holding that there was no criminal when a person stood by and did nothing to help someone else in. D. Verbal expressions as acts 1. Under certain circumstances, mere can constitute the actus reus of a criminal act. a. Such words are so that they can constitute a threat or cause further physical actions that society views as a social harm. (1) Making remarks in a restaurant about a woman in the presence of her husband and children could a violent reaction. b. Where and how a person makes a statement has a lot to do with whether the statement could be considered a criminal act. (1) Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded can be criminally prosecuted under some circumstances. Yelling such a statement could cause such a among the crowd that the patrons might be injured or killed out of the theater. E. Possession as an act 1. All jurisdictions have statutes for offenses, which the possession of certain items or substances. a. A person can be guilty of a crime requiring possession without any further act than possession of the article. (1) Possession of illegal drugs and possession of criminal instruments such as tools both constitute criminal acts. 2. Actual possession is usually required: a. A house at a dwelling where illegal narcotics are found would not be in possession of the drugs, and thus would not be guilty of the crime of possession. 3. To prove a possessory offense, the prosecutor must prove that the accused person possessed the illegal item. a. Possession is a criminal act if the possessor either knowingly the object possessed, or knew they were in control of it for a sufficient period to have been able to possession. 4. Possessory offenses frequently involve where it is likely that an individual will use what he or she possesses to ultimately commit a. a. This explains the reason for their existence: to deter further criminal activity. b. By holding someone criminally liable for possessing the to commit a crime, further social harm may be. VI. PRELIMINARY CRIMES A. Certain types of behavior take place before the commission of a crime but are complete crimes in themselves. Each offense can be punished even if the harm intended never occurred. 8

9 1. Solicitation a. A number of states make it a crime for a person to solicit (that is, ask,, urge, or ) another person to commit a crime. (1) Example: Asking someone to buy for a minor. 2. Attempt a. In most states, an to commit a crime is in itself a crime. b. To be guilty of the crime of attempt, the accused must have both to commit a crime and taken some substantial step toward the crime. (1) Mere preparation to commit a crime is not enough. c. When sorneone performs all of the of a crime but to achieve the criminal result, an attempt has occurred. (1) Example: A person intends to shoot and kill someone but misses or merely wounds the intended victim, the person is guilty of attempted murder. 3. Conspiracy a. A conspiracy is an between two or more persons to a crime. (1) The designation of conspiracy as a crime is meant to other crimes and to strike against criminal activity by. (2) It also allows police to arrest before they come dangerously close to the crime. b. An example of criminal conspiracy would be, a drug dealer, asks his associate, to kill another dealer in his neighborhood. (1) If one of them takes some to commit the crime, both are guilty of conspiracy to commit. (2) The murder does not need to be attempted or accomplished. c. In most states and in federal law, an act - that is, the act is committed open to view - is required for conviction on a charge. VII. PARTIES TO A CRIME A. Principals 1. The person who commits a crime is called the principal. a. All principals are guilty of the offense. 2. There are five conditions that make a person a principal in a crime: a. Committing the crime. b. Aiding and another to commit the crime. (1) Aid means to and it can be done innocently without any of guilt knowledge or felonious intent. (2) Abet means accompanied by of the wrongful purpose of the committing the crime. There is a clear of guilt at the time assistance is given. c. Not being present at the time of the crime but, and the commission of the crime. d. All persons who counsel children under a certain age limit (14 years in most states), and the ill to commit a crime. 9

10 e. Forcing another to commit a crime by the use of intimidation (threats of great bodily harm). B. Accomplices 1. Anyone who helps the complete the crime may be charged as an. a. An accomplice is anyone who is to prosecution for the offense charged against the defendant on trial. 2. An accomplice is some one who and associates with others in the commission of a criminal offense, and who intentionally assists another person in the commission of a crime. a. Accomplices aid and abet another principal in the commission of a crime when they assist or that person in accomplishing the crime. b. An accomplice possesses the intent to support or the commission of the crime. c. A person could be an accomplice to a crime through many actions that help or the crime's commission, including: (1) Offering of encouragement. (2) Providing a weapon to be used during the offense. (3) Being a during the criminal act. (4) Driving the getaway car. C. Accessory after the fact 1. Every person who, after a crime has been committed,, conceals, or a principal in such crime: a. with intent that said principal may avoid or arrest, conviction or punishment, b. having knowledge that said principal has committed such crime or has been with such crime or convicted thereof, c. is an accessory to such crime. 2. An accessory the fact has nothing to do with the commission of the crime itself. 3. Some states such as California require the crime involved to be a in order to be an accessory after the fact. 4. Accessories after the fact are responsible only for their own actions, not for the crime. 10