Chapter 3: The Criminal Law in the U'S'

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Chapter 3 The Criminal Law in the U.S.

• The work of the Criminal Justice system is
  determined by the criminal law
• Orienting Questions
• What does the criminal law involve (in U.S.)?
• Where does criminal law come from?
• How is it changed and modified?
• What are its basic concepts and principles?

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1) What does criminal law involve?

• Note different types of legal controls (over
  behavior)
• Criminal Law (wrongful acts against community)
• Civil Law
• Torts (wrongful acts between individuals)
• Administrative law (of individual-community
  relations)
• Regulatory law (of business commerce)
• Juvenile law
• Note criminal law is a political construction
  (expressed in legal codes)

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1) What does criminal law involve? (continued)

• Divided into two basic Components
• Substantive Criminal Law
• Specifies the offenses (what counts as a crime)
• Specifies the punishments (level of condemnation)
• Procedural Criminal Law
• Specifies how offenders are to be investigated,
  accused, adjudicated, sentenced, and punished.
• Specifies the procedures and criteria by which
  these processes are to take place

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1) What does criminal law involve? (continued)

• Recognizes different levels of criminal offenses
  by seriousness
• Felonies (Major crimes)
• Misdemeanors (Minor crimes)
• Infractions/Petty Offenses (near-crimes)
• Other categories? (by scale or magnitude)
• Treason Terrorism Organized Crime (RICO)
• These imply different procedures punishments by
  level

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1) What does criminal law involve? (continued)

• Where is the Criminal Law located?
• Constitutional Law
• Found in fundamental or charter documents
• Mainly sets limits on criminal law
• Statutory Law
• Main criminal law located in the Criminal Codes
• Comes from legislative enactments and laws
• Case Law
• From judicial decisions (mainly appellate)

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1) What does criminal law involve? (continued)

• U.S. Not a single CJ system but 51 independent
  systems -- 50 states federal
• States and federal governments separate
  sovereignties
• Legal jurisdictions are substantially separate
• Why so many different legal systems?
• The U.S. was created as a confederation of
  states (with a weak central government)
• Shift over time toward more federalization
• But basic premise of state sovereignty remains

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2) How did the criminal law develop?

• Note evolutionary nature of U.S. legal system
• Historical roots of U.S. Criminal Law
• Ancient legal systems Babylonian, Hebrew, Roman
• Germanic legal traditions (Wergild system) gt
  compensation for wrongs against tribes and clans
  to maintain local peace
• Early English law collection of local systems
  scattered kingdoms
• English Common Law
• Unified politically under William the Conqueror
  (11th C.)
• Unification of law under Henry II (written law)
• Law imposed and enforced by Circuit Justices
• Development of common law by Judicial decisions
  (principle of stare decisis)

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2) How did the criminal law develop? (cont.)

• Development of Criminal Law in American Colonies
• Adoption of common law tradition/procedures
• Emphasis on local autonomy
• Ambivalence about strong central legal system
• Formation of U.S. as separate nation
• Retention of States sovereignty legal systems
• Limited authority/jurisdiction granted to federal
  government
• Greater codification of law
• but continued reliance on stare decisis

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3) Criminal Law in the U.S. How does it change?

• Constitutional Amendments
• Legislative changes to criminal codes
• may add, modify, repeal statutes
• overhaul or replace the codes?
• Judicial decisions
• That interpret, apply, or reinterpret the law in
  specific cases

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4) Basic concepts principles of U.S. criminal
law?

• due process applying ideas about fundamental
  fairness to limit the law
• Substantive due process
• Procedural due process
• Legal definition of a Crime willful and harmful
  act that violates a criminal law and in
  punishable by the state. Components
• Explicit law jurisdiction
• Harmful act (actus reus)
• Criminal intent (mens rea)

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4) Basic concepts principles (continued)

• Note that criminal defenses generally focus on
  some aspect of the legal definition of a Crime
• May be either lack of harmful act or lack of
  criminal intent
• Harmful act action outcome causal link
• Criminal intent knowledge volition
• (action is knowing and willful)
• Justifications for acts lack of free will or
  choice due to external circumstances
• Excuses for acts lack of knowledge or
  self-control due to internal factors

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4) Basic concepts principles (continued)

• Example of justifications for criminal act
• Compulsion or necessity
• Self-defense
• Examples of Excuses for acts
• Intoxication
• Immaturity
• Insanity

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4) Basic concepts principles (continued)

• The Insanity Defense as formal legal excuse
• Lack of mens rea due to mental impairment or
  incapacity to exercise knowing, voluntary action
• Elements of mens rea
• cognition (knowledge or comprehension)
• volition (self-control)
• Legal issue of insanity may involve either (or
  both) of these elements
• Legal issue of insanity may be a sane-insane
  dichotomy or a matter of degree of impairment

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4) Basic concepts principles (continued)

• Insanity Defense and NGRI verdict
• Successful insanity defense results in a special
  verdict -gt Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity
• Alternative would be mental impairment as a
  sentencing consideration (after conviction)
• NGRI results in civil (rather than criminal)
  procedures for handling insane offender
• Not used successfully very often, but a few
  spectacular cases have provoked public criticism

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4) Basic concepts principles (continued)

• Rules for invoking NGRI verdict
• Wild Beast Rule (1723)
• Irresistible Impulse Rule (1840)
• MNaghten Rule (1843) (1851-US)
• Durham Rule (NH-1868 US-1954)
• Substantial Capacity Rule (1972-US)
• Neo-MNaghten (current federal)

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4) Basic concepts principles (continued)

• Changing Defenses
• Post-combat Stress
• Post-partum Depression
• Battered Woman defense
• Twinkie defense (hypoglycemia)
• Genetic anomaly defense

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4) Basic concepts principles (continued)

• Constitutional Limits on Criminal Justice
• The Bill of Rights (1st Amendments)
• Initially applied only to the Federal government
  (not to states)
• Made applicable to the states through the 14th
  Amendment (in early 20th century)
• Amendments relevant to Criminal Justice?