Criminal Law: Chapter 4 in Your Textbook

Criminal Law
Chapter 4 In Your Textbook
John Massey
Criminal Justice
Why is criminal law important?
 Two basic functions
 Primary (legal) – maintain social order by protecting citizens from
criminal harm
 Includes two harms – harm to individual citizen’s safety and property
and harm to society’s interests collectively
 Secondary (social) – to maintain and teach
 Two goals
 Reflect values, morals and norms of society and teach expectations
of society
 Sources of Criminal Law
 4 sources
 Constitutional, Statutory, Case, Regulatory Law
Constitutional Law
 Both federal and state governments have

constitutions
 Law emerges from those constitutions
 “supreme law of the land”
 Basis of all law in the U.S.
 Laws that violate the Constitution are
challenged at Supreme Court
Statutory, Case, & Administrative Law
 Statutory Law
 Enacted and passed by legislative bodies
 Laws cannot violate constitutions
 Congress/state legislatures
 Case Law
 Laws that emerge from court decisions
 Interpretations
 Reviews of statutes, legsislation
 Administrative Law
 Rules and laws of regulatory agencies
 Created by agencies to carry out duties
Civil Law v. Criminal Law
 Crime is an act that violates a law
 Civil law – deals with private and public rights, not criminal issues
 This can involve disputes between individuals, corporations,
contracts
 Civil court – plantiff (victim) must prove a wrong was committed

 Financial rewards in many instances
 Ex: OJ Simpson case, $8.5 million to familes
 Sometimes individuals face both criminal and civil trial

 Easier to win a civil trial than criminal trial
 Burden of proof in criminal trials – beyond a reasonable doubt
 Burden of proof in civil trials – proponderance of the evidence
(more than 50 percent likely)
Felonies v. Misdemeanors
 Defined based on degree of seriousness
 Felonies: serious crimes
 Punishable by death or prison for one year or longer
 Must have malice aforethought, premeditation or deliberation
in order to have a homicide. If not = manslaughter.
 Two types of manslaughter (voluntary and involuntary)
 Voluntary – intent to kill but malice is lacking (crimes that are
committed in a heat of passion)
 Involuntary – offender is negligent in acts, no intent to kill (DUI,
fight)
Misdemeanors
 Misdemeanors: any crime that is not a felony

 Punishable often by fines, community sanctions,
probation, less than 1 year in jail
 Different classes depending on seriousness
 Examples: trespassing, petty theft, shoplifting,
disturbing the peace
 In Virginia: 4 classes of misdemeanors, 6 classes of
felonies (Class 1 most serious, class 4/6 least
serious)
Mala in se v. Mala prohibita
 Another way to look at different types of crime
 This method is not as important or as frequently used
 The social function of criminal law designed by criminologists
 Mala in se: considered wrong even if there’s not a law that

prohibits it
 Inherently wrong
 Natural and moral law
 Ex: murder
 Mala prohibita
 Considered crime because it has been defined that way, put
into statute or law
 Varies from place to place (states, countries, localities)
 Ex: gambling
 Difficult to distinguish because technically all laws are

defined.
Elements of a Crime
You think you now know what crime is. -Think again.
What is needed in order to have a crime? (ignore your book for

this, it will only confuse you)
* FOUR ELEMENTS NEEDED IN ORDER TO HAVE A

CRIME
* However, there are six basic elements
* You must have:

1) Corpus delecti
2) Mens Rea
3) Actus Reus
4) Concurrence
* You can have neither, either, or both of the other two

remaining elements but you NEED THESE FOUR TO HAVE
A CRIME.
The Four Elements
The Four Key Elements
Corpus Delecti (This is the starting point)

-the body of the crime
-proof that an actual crime has been committed by someone
-ex1: in a murder, the body is the corpus delecti
-ex2: in a bicycle theft, the bicycle is gone
Actus Reus
-the guilty act (must be voluntary)
-ex1: in a murder, the actus reus is homicide
-ex2: if a vehicle is stolen, the actus reus is motor vehicle theft
The Four Elements
Mens Rea
-the guilty intent
-person must intentionally, knowingly and willingly commit the criminal act
-ex1: homicide, the person committing the homicide must understand that it is
wrong and is a crime
-in order to have a guilty mental state, elements are required:

1) purpose: X commits Y for Outcome Z
2) knowingly: X commits Y and knows that Y is wrong
3) negligence: X commits Y without using a standard of care that a
reasonable person would use
4) recklessness: X commits Y with a conscious disregard of Outcome Z
Concurrence
-the joining together of both the criminal act and the guilty mind
-the criminal act must be the result of the offender’s intention to commit a particular
criminal act
Other Elements
 Not required but can be used
 Can be very helpful
 -attendant circumstances
 Ex: using a handgun in a
robbery will make the charge
of robbery become a charge of
armed robbery
 -the harm done (result of the

act)
 Ex1: how much was stolen in
the burglary?
 Ex2: what happened to the
victim? Death? Only a
bruise?
Criminal Defenses
 Insanity
 -defense for criminal liability
 Asserts a lack of criminal responsibility
 Person cannot have state of mind to commit a crime that
he/she did not know was wrong at the time
 Ways to measure:
 M’Naughten Rule (used by 16 states)
 New Hampshire (Durham) Rule (used in several other areas)
 Virginia uses both tests
 Montana, Idaho, Utah – no insanity defense
 New Hampshire – no standard form to determine mental
illness
Insanity
 Definition of Insanity
M’Naghten Rule
 Daniel McNaghten in 1843
 A deluded Scotsman
 Thought the Prime Minister (Sir Robert Peel) was persecuting him
 Tried to shoot him and instead killed his secretary
 Ruled insane and spent 20 years in a mental asylum until his death
 McNaghten Rule
To establish a defense on the grounds of insanity, it must be clearly
proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was
laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as
not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did
know it, that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong.
Insanity
 New Hampshire (Durham) Rule (1869)
Test of criminal responsibility is whether the act was the offspring or product of mental disease
in the defendant
 American Law Institute (ALI) (1962)

 Is now used in about half the states
 A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct, as a result of
mental disease or defect, he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his
conduct or t conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.
 Insanity Defense Reform Act (1984)

 NGRI finding for John Hinckley following 1982 assassination attempt of
President Reagan
 Covers Federal trials
 Prohibited experts from giving opinions about the defendant’s insanity
 Placed the burden of proof on the defendant (clear and convincing evidence)
Insanity in Virginia
 M’Naughten + Irresistible Impulse
 Mental disease or defect, and
 Did not understand what he was doing (or)
 Did not know what he was doing was wrong (or)
 Was not able to control the impulse to act
 The myths of the insanity defense

 Getting away with crime
 Not being punished
 Being released soon
 And there are many more…
Other Criminal Defenses
 Intoxication (voluntary v. involuntary)
 Voluntary intoxication defense has been eliminated in 12 states
 Mistake/Ignorance
 Not very successful
 In many instances, a mistake or ignorance cannot be claimed and void one of liability
 Justification Defenses
 Duress
 Unlawful pressure on a person causes the person to perform an act s/he normally wouldn’t
(ex: the movie Collateral)
 Self-defense
 Ability to protect oneself and property from injury by another
 Protects only acts that are reasonably necessary to protect (ex: defense of home, vehicle,
prevention of a crime)
 Necessity
 “the circumstances at the time made me do it!”
 The harm prevented must be greater than the harm that you have done
 Entrapment
 Citizen has been deceived by a government agent into committing a crime (that otherwise
would not have been committed
Your Rights
 Procedural safeguards
 -found in two places
 1) Bill of Rights
 -basis of procedural safeguards
 -offers protection from the federal govt.
 -ex: rights against unreasonable searches
and seizures, due process, probable cause,
etc.
 2) Due Process Clause

 -govt. decisions in prosecution should be
fair
 -fair and just procedures
 -reasonable, valid, and legal

Criminal Law: Chapter 4 in Your Textbook

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Criminal Law: Chapter 4 in Your Textbook

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Criminal Law: Chapter 4 in Your Textbook

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Criminal Law

Chapter 4 In Your Textbook

 Both federal and state governments have

 Civil court – plantiff (victim) must prove a wrong was committed

 Sometimes individuals face both criminal and civil trial

 Misdemeanors: any crime that is not a felony

 Mala in se: considered wrong even if there’s not a law that

 Difficult to distinguish because technically all laws are

What is needed in order to have a crime? (ignore your book for

* FOUR ELEMENTS NEEDED IN ORDER TO HAVE A

* However, there are six basic elements

* You must have:

* You can have neither, either, or both of the other two

Corpus Delecti (This is the starting point)

-in order to have a guilty mental state, elements are required:

 -the harm done (result of the

 American Law Institute (ALI) (1962)

 Insanity Defense Reform Act (1984)

 The myths of the insanity defense

 2) Due Process Clause

You might also like