Criminal Justice Systems

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Criminal Justice Systems

• Criminal
• Law

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What is Law?

• Law is a formal system of rules and regulations
  by which society expects its members to abide
  (Bartollas and Braswell 1997112-113).

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What is Criminal Law?

• Restricts criminal behavior
• Defines acceptable and unacceptable behaviors
• Reflection of societys values

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Nature of Law

• Two sources
• (1) Statutory Law
• written law enacted by a governmental body
• statutes that are passed by an elected
  representative body

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Nature of Law cont

• (2) Case Law
• cases previously decided or ruled upon (Calvi and
  Coleman 200012)
  
• built upon precedent
• assurance that yesterdays cases will govern
  todays cases
  
• predictability (Calvi and Coleman 200012)

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Development of American Law

• Code of Hammurabi
• Importance to American Law
• punishment more predictable

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Development of American Law cont
Roman Law

• Distinction between public and private law

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Roman Law and Traffic Law Enforcement

• Promoted rapid transportation and city designs
• Grid System

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Grid System
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Highway System
Traffic Accidents Investigated
Weight Laws
Graded Roadway Surfaces
Banked turns for speed
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Roman Law and Traffic Law Enforcement cont

• The Three Es
• Engineering
• Education
• Enforcement

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Note of Historical Trivia

• Americas First Fatality Accident
• 1899--New York City
• 10 mph

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Development of American Law cont

• English Influence
• Common Law
• judge-made law
• precedent or principles of law
• Distinction between offenses
• felony
• misdemeanor

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Development of American Law cont

• Magna Carta
• laid ground work for due process of law
• British citizens guaranteed certain rights

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Development of American Law cont

• U. S. Constitution
• Final authority about our countrys criminal law
• U. S. Supreme Courts interpretations
• Natural Law
• higher law verses lower, man-made law

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Development of American Law cont

• Rule of Law
• society must be governed by established
  principles and codes
  
• Purpose of Law
• regulating and controlling human
  interactionsocial control

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Criminal Law

• Offenses committed against society, its members,
  their property and social order (Schmalleger
  2001127).
  
• Kings Peace

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Criminal Law cont

• Substantive criminal law
• defines crimes and specifies punishments
• Procedural law
• specifies the methods to be used in enforcing
  substantive law

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Civil Law

• Governs relationships between persons or parties
  in the course of private affairs
  
• Seeks compensation
• property or monetary damages

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Civil Law cont

• Who is liable or responsible
• not guilt or innocence
• Standard
• preponderance of the evidence
• A single incident can cause both civil and
  criminal actions

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Administrative Law

• Regulations controlling business and industry
• individuals within those businesses and industries

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Case Law

• Judicial Precedent
• historical interpretations of statutory laws
• serves as guide to decision-making

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Procedural Law

• Process of law
• how law is carried out as an individual moves
  through the various stages of the CJS

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Important Point

• Substantive law is concerned with the content of
  the law
  
• Procedural law is concerned with the process of
  law

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General Categories of Crime

• Felonies
• punishment of incarceration in prison for at
  least one year or death

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General Categories of Crime cont

• Misdemeanor
• punishment by incarceration for one year or less
  in jail
  
• Offenses
• violation of criminal law
• ticketable

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General Categories of Crime cont

• Inchoate Offense
• conduct that is criminal even if no harm has
  occurred, but merely planned or attempted (Cole
  and Smith 199950).

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General Features of Crime

• A crime is legally proscribed, human conduct
  that is causative of a given harm, in which the
  conduct coincides with a blameworthy frame of
  mind, and is subject to punishment (Cole and
  Smith 199949).

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General Features of Crime contThree connected
elements
Guilty Mind (mens rea) specific intent
Criminal Act (actus reus) violation of law
CRIME (concurrence)
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General Features of Crime cont

• Criminal Act
• statute that clearly defines guilty act/behavior
• includes failure to do certain things
• child neglect

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General Features of Crime cont

• Guilty Mind (strict intent)
• mental state of person
• knowingly and willfully
• must infer from persons actions

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General Features of Crime cont

• Guilty Mind (general intent)
• persons state of mind not a factor in
  determination of guilt or innocence
  
• traffic tickets

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General Features of Crime cont

• Causation
• person must cause a particular result before
  liability is established
  
• Harm
• harm to some legally protected value

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General Features of Crime cont

• Legality
• must be written down
• Punishment
• for an act to be criminal, MUST have assigned
  punishment

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Standards of Proof

• Preponderance of the evidence
• civil cases
• the weight of evidence, however slight, must
  favor the plaintiff's version of the dispute

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Standards of Proof cont

• Beyond a reasonable doubt
• all possible alternative explanations for what
  happened have been considered and rejected but
  onethe one that concludes that the accused
  committed the crime for which he/she is charged
  (Calvi and Coleman 2000170-171)

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Elements of Specific Criminal Offenses

• The statutory minimum to convict a person of a
  crime
  
• Corpus delicti
• facts showing a crime has occurred

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Criminal Defenses

• Alibi
• Justification
• Excuses
• Procedural
• Innovative
• abuse
• biological

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