UNIT

1. UNIT 3 • Criminal Law • This unit's seminar focuses on criminal law and its historical development. We will discuss the various criminal defenses, the features of a crime, and the categories of criminal law violations.

2. What is Law?

3. A law is a rule of conduct, generally found enacted in the form of a statute, that proscribes or mandates certain forms of behavior. Laws channel human behavior while they simultaneously constrain it, and they empower individuals while contributing to public order. Law

4. Purpose • What is the purpose of the Law?

5. The purpose of law: • To maintain order, regulate interaction, enforce moral beliefs, define the economic environment, enhance predictability, sustain individual rights, redress wrongs, identify wrongdoers, mandate punishment and retribution.

6. Laws maintain order in society. Laws regulate human interaction. Laws enforce moral beliefs. Laws define the economic environment. Laws enhance predictability. Laws support the powerful. Laws promote orderly social change. Laws sustain individual rights. Laws redress wrongs. Laws identify wrongdoers. Laws mandate punishment and retribution. What Do Laws Do?

7. What is Criminal Law?

8. Criminal Law • Criminal law is the foundation of the criminal justice system and differs from civil law in many ways. • Criminal cases must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, whereas verdicts in civil cases are determined based on a preponderance of the evidence. • Criminal law may impose incarceration, whereas civil law may only require that the defendant pay monetary damages. • Criminal cases also require the prosecutor to prove intent, or mens rea. In contrast, civil law allows citizens to seek redress for property damage, personal injury, or intangible damages (mental suffering, defamation of character) that are a result of accidental, or negligent acts that are not necessarily criminal in nature.

9. Criminal Law! • The form of the law that defines and specifies punishments for offenses of a public nature or for wrongs committed against the state or the society. • American criminal law generally distinguishes between serious crimes (felonies) and those that are less grave (misdemeanors). • Guilt can be demonstrated, and criminal offenders convicted, only if all of the statutory elements of a particular crime can be proved in court. • Law also mandates the procedures for carrying out the criminal justice process.

10. Criminal Law • Criminal law (also known as penal law) is a branch of modern law that concerns itself with offenses committed against society, its members, their property, and the social order. • Crimes injure not just individuals, but society as a whole. • Punishment for violators of criminal law is justified by the fact that the offender intended the harm and is responsible for it.

11. General Categories of Crimes There are many different types of crimes, which vary in severity. Five categories of law violations are: • Felonies • Misdemeanors • Offenses • Treason and espionage • Inchoate offenses

12. Elements of a specific crime are the essential features of a given crime, as specified by law or statute. For example, the elements of first-degree murder might be: 1) an unlawful killing, 2) of a human being, 3) intentionally, 4) by another person, and 5) with malice. To convict someone of a particular crime, each element must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Elements of a Specific Crime

13. Felonies Felonies are serious crimes that are punishable by a year or more in prison or by death. Often, convicted felons lose certain privileges, such as being able to practice medicine or carry a gun.

14. Misdemeanor Misdemeanors are less serious crimes that are punishable by up to a year in a local correctional facility. • Most misdemeanants receive a fine and probation.

15. Offenses Offenses are violations of the criminal law. • Though technically all crimes are offenses, the term can also be used specifically to refer to minor violations of the law that are less serious than misdemeanors. • Another word for such minor law violations is infraction.

16. Treason and Espionage • Treason and espionage are among the most serious felonies. • Treason refers to a U.S. citizen’s action to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the United States. • Espionage is similar, but can be committed by non-citizens as well. It refers to gathering, transmitting, or losing information relating to national defense in such a manner that the information becomes available to enemies of the U.S. and may be used to their advantage.

17. Inchoate Offenses • Inchoate offenses are offenses not yet completed. • Consists of an action or conduct that is a step toward the intended commission of another offense. • Examples: conspiracies and attempts.

18. General Features of Crime The essence of crime consists of three elements: • Actus reus (the criminal act) • Mens rea (a culpable mental state) • Concurrence of the two

19. Actus Reus • Describe “Actus Reus”

20. The Criminal Act (Actus Reus) Actus reus—the guilty act • There has to be an illegal act and the act must be illegal. Thoughts alone are not sufficient to constitute a crime. • To be something (like a drug addict) is not enough. • In some instances, speech can constitute a crime even though there is no specific physical action (i.e. yelling “fire” in a crowded theater when there is no fire).

21. Mens Rea • Describe “Mens Rea”

22. Mens Rea • *A guilty mind; the intent to commit a criminal act. • *Under common law, for an act to constitute a crime, the actor must have criminal intent / mens rea. • *Mens rea is also present when a person’s reckless or negligent act produces social harm.

23. A Guilty Mind (Mens Rea) • Mens rea refers to a person’s mental state • at the time the act was committed. • There are four levels of mens rea: • Purposeful • Knowing • Reckless • Negligent • Mens rea is not the same as motive.

24. Strict Liability and Mens Rea Strict liability offenses are a special category of crime that require no culpable mental state. The purpose of these absolute liability offenses is to protect the public. Examples include: • Traffic laws • Narcotics laws • Health and safety regulations

25. Corpus Delicti • What is meant by the “corpus delicti” of a criminal act?

26. Corpus Delicti • Corpus Delicti: • The state must prove that a crime has been committed before an individual is tried for that particular crime.

27. The Corpus Delicti of a Crime • Corpus delictiliterally means the “body • of crime.” • A person cannot be tried for a crime • unless it can first be proven that: • A criminal law has been violated, and • A person is criminally responsible.

28. Types of Defenses to a Criminal Charge • Those who are charged with a crime typically • offer some defense attempting to show why • they should no be liable for a criminal charge. • There are four broad categories of defenses: • Alibi • Justifications • Excuses • Procedural defenses

29. Alibi • Claim of alibi must be proven.

30. Alibi An alibi is a statement or contention by the defendant stating that he or she could not have committed the crime in question because he or she was somewhere else at the time of the crime.

31. Justification With justification defenses, defendants admit committing the offense, but believes that they should not be held criminally responsible because of a legally sufficient justification for their actions (lesser of two evils). Examples:

32. Self-defense makes the claim that it was necessary to inflict pain on another to ensure one’s own safety in the face of near-certain injury or death. Retreat rule—If the opportunity to escape exists, then the courts require that the victim take that opportunity and flee. If the opportunity to flee does not exist, then the victim can use reasonable forceto defend herself. Self-Defense

33. You may use reasonable force to defend others who are or who appear to be in imminent danger. Sometimes called the alter ego rule. Defense of others does NOTinclude entering an illegal fight to help a family member or friend. Defense of Others

34. Most jurisdictions allow for the use of reasonable, non-deadly force in defense of one’s property. If that property is one’s home, the castle exception to the retreat rule applies. It is not necessary to retreat from one’s own home before resorting to deadly force in the face of an immediate threat. A “home” is one’s dwelling, whether owned, rented, or borrowed. Defense of Home and Property

35. One can sometimes violate the law when the purpose of the action is to prevent even greater harm. Courts have a difficult time with this defense, especially when it results in a person’s death. Necessity

36. If harm comes to an individual after she agreed to participate in the activity, then the question that is raised is this: Was a crime committed if the victim gave her consent? Example: victim dies during “rough sex.” Consent

37. A person has the right to resist arrest if the arrest is unlawful. Resisting Unlawful Arrest

38. Excuses With excuse defenses, defendants admit committing the offense, but believe that they should not be held criminally responsible because of some personal condition or circumstance at the time of the act. Examples:

39. Duress is an unlawful threat or coercion that induces a person to act in a way they normally would not act. Often not a useful defense when serious physical harm ensues. Duress

40. Age is an excuse defense commonly called “infancy.” It is rooted in the belief that children cannot logically reason until around age seven. Therefore, only older children may be held responsible for crimes. Age

41. Two types of mistakes serve as defenses: 1. Mistake of law - Rarely acceptable 2. Mistake of fact - Understanding of facts is incorrect Mistake

42. Sometimes, people are tricked into consuming intoxicating substances. Drugs or alcohol (though being “tricked” into consuming alcohol may be difficult to prove) Involuntary Intoxication

43. A person cannot be held responsible for anything he or she does while unconscious. Examples: Sleepwalking Epileptic seizures Neurological dysfunction Unconsciousness

44. Provocation recognizes that a person can be emotionally enraged by another who may intend to elicit just such a reaction. It is more acceptable in minor offenses. Sometimes used in cases where a wife kills her husband or a child kills her father after claiming years of abuse. Provocation

45. Sometimes courts find suspects “incompetent to stand trial.” as a result of mental illness, defect, or disability, a defendant in incapable of understanding the nature of the charges and proceeding against him or her, of consulting with an attorney, and of aiding in his or her own defense. Mental Incompetence

46. The federal Insanity Defense Reform Act (IDRA) was passed in 1984. IDRA places the burden of proof of insanity on the defendant. Insanity is defined as: a condition in which the defendant can be shown to have been suffering under a “severe mental disease or defect” and as a result, “was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts.” The Insanity Defense under Federal Law

47. Offender claims to only have been insane at the time of the offense. Temporary Insanity

48. An insanity ruling is not an “easy way out.” The judge may order the person to undergo treatment until he or she is cured. Consequences of an Insanity Ruling

49. Procedural Defenses With procedural defenses, defendants claim that they were in some way discriminated against in the justice process or that some important aspect of official procedure was not properly followed in the investigation or prosecution of the crime charged. Examples:

50. Entrapment occurs when agents of law enforcement improperly or illegally induce a person to commit a crime that he or she would not otherwise have committed. Entrapment