September 10, 2022

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In this journal entry, reflect on at least two things you learned or discovered through the Chapter's readings. Reflect on how a particular topic in the chapter was interesting, challenging, boring, surprising to you and how you may apply a particular concept or theory you learned in the reading in your current or future profession.

Instructions: There is no minimum word limit for your journals, however, you will need to put in some effort and write at least a couple of good paragraphs for your reflection journals.

Schmalleger_CJ_Brief_lecture_ch03_accessiblePPT1.pptx

Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction

Thirteenth Edition

Chapter 3

Criminal Law

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The Nature and Purpose of Law (1 of 2)

Law

A rule of conduct, generally found enacted in the form of a statute, that proscribes or mandates certain forms of behavior

Laws regulate relationships between people and between parties

The Nature and Purpose of Law (2 of 2)

Statutory law—the “law on the books,” written or codified law resulting from legislative action

Penal code—the written form of the criminal law.

Case law—law resulting from judicial decisions.

Common law—traditional body of law originating from usage and custom rather than from written statutes

Table 3.1 What Do Laws Do?

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.

The Rule of Law (1 of 2)

The belief that an orderly society must be governed by established principles and known codes that are applied uniformly and fairly to all of its members

No one is above the law; those who make or enforce the law must also abide by it

Sometimes referred to as the supremacy of law

Jurisprudence-the philosophy of law, the science and study of the law, including the rule of law

The Rule of Law (2 of 2)

Key elements of the rule of law:

Freedom from private lawlessness

High degree of objectivity in formulating legal norms and evenhandedness in their application

Legal ideas/devices for attaining individual and group objectives within bounds of ordered liberty

Substantive and procedural limitations on governmental power

Criminal Law

The body of rules and regulations that define and specify the nature of and punishments for offenses of a public nature or for wrongs committed against the state or society

Also called penal law

Includes statutory (written law) and case law

Statutory Law

Substantive criminal law

The part of the law that defines crimes and specifies punishments

Procedural law

The part of the law that specifies the methods to be used in enforcing substantive law

Balance suspect’s rights against the state’s interests in the speedy and efficient processing of defendants

Civil Law (1 of 2)

Governs relationships between and among parties

Includes rules for contracts, divorces, child support and custody, wills, libel, etc.

Civil suits typically seek compensation, not punishment

Civil Law (2 of 2)

Violation of civil law is not a crime

May be a contract violation or a tort

Tort—a wrongful act, damage, or injury not involving a breach of contract (personal wrong, not a crime)

Parties to a civil suit

Plaintiff: Seeks relief

Defendant: Against whom relief is sought

Administrative Law

Body of regulations governments create to control the activities of industries, businesses, and individuals

Includes tax laws, health codes, vehicle registration laws

Most breaches of administrative law are not crimes, but criminal law and administrative regulations may overlap

Case Law

Law of precedent, comes from judicial decisions

Precedent

A legal principle that ensures that previous judicial decisions are authoritatively considered and incorporated into future cases

Stare decisis

A legal principle that requires that in subsequent cases on similar issues of law and fact, courts be bound by their own earlier decisions and by those of higher courts having jurisdiction over them

Felonies

A criminal offense punishable by death or by incarceration in a prison facility for at least one year

Serious crimes such as murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, and arson

Convicted felons typically lose certain privileges upon release from prison

Misdemeanors

An offense punishable by incarceration, usually in a local confinement facility, for a period whose upper limit is prescribed by statute in a given jurisdiction, typically one year or less

Relative minor crimes such as petty theft, simple assault, breaking and entering, disturbing the peace, etc.

Most offenders receive suspended sentences involving a fine and supervised probation

Infractions

A minor violation of state statute or local ordinance punishable by a fine or other penalty or by a specified, usually limited, term of incarceration

Typically includes things like jaywalking, spitting on the sidewalk, littering, and certain traffic offenses

Offenders are normally ticketed and released

Treason

A U.S. citizen’s actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the United States

The attempt to overthrow the government of the society of which one is a member

Espionage

The “gathering, transmitting, or losing” of information related to the national defense in a manner that the information becomes available to enemies of the United States and may be used to their advantage

The key difference between treason and espionage is that espionage may be committed by non-U. S. citizens

Inchoate Offenses

An incomplete offense—one that has not been fully carried out

An offense that consists of an action or conduct that is a step toward the intended commission of another offense

Includes conspiracies and attempts to commit a crime

General Features of Crime

The essence of crime consists of three conjoined elements

Actus reus

Mens rea

Concurrence

Figure 3.3 Features of a Crime

The Criminal Act (Actus Reus)

“Guilty act”

Person must commit a voluntary act for it to be considered a crime

To be something is not a crime; to do something may be.

An omission to act can be a crime

Threatening to act can be a crime

Conspiracy can be a crime

A Guilty Mind (Mens Rea) (1 of 5)

The state of mind that accompanies a criminal act; the defendant’s mental state at the time of the crime

Types or levels of mens rea

Purposeful or intentional

Knowing

Reckless

Negligent

A Guilty Mind (Mens Rea) (2 of 5)

Purposeful or intentional action

Undertaken to achieve some goal

Transferred intent—if harm resulting from an intentional action is unintended, criminal liability is not reduced

Knowing behavior

Undertaken with awareness, although the intended purpose of acting in a knowingly criminal way may not be criminal intent

Involves near certainty

A Guilty Mind (Mens Rea) (3 of 5)

Reckless behavior

An activity that increases the risk of harm

Lacks the certainty of knowing behavior

Criminal negligence

A behavior in which a person fails to reasonably perceive substantial and unjustifiable risks of dangerous consequences

No negative consequences need to be intended

A Guilty Mind (Mens Rea) (4 of 5)

Mens rea is not the same thing as motive

Motive

A person’s reason for committing a crime

Motive is not an essential element of a crime

Mens rea must generally be inferred from a person’s actions and from all circumstances

A Guilty Mind (Mens Rea) (5 of 5)

Strict liability crimes do not require mens rea

Also called absolute liability offenses

Make it a crime simply to do something, even if there is no intent to violate the law

Routine traffic offenses, statutory rape

Concurrence

Requires that the act and the mental state occur together in order for a crime to take place

If one occurs before the other, the requirements of the criminal law have not been met

Other Features of Crime (1 of 3)

Causation

The concurrence of a guilty mind and a criminal act may cause harm

Legal cause—must be demonstrated in court to hold an individual criminally liable for causing harm

Harm

Harm occurs in all crimes but not all harms are crimes

Harm subsumed under notion of guilty act in a criminal prosecution

Other Features of Crime (2 of 3)

Legality

A behavior cannot be criminal if no law exists that defines it as such

Ex post facto laws (“after the fact”) are not binding

Laws cannot be binding prior to the date of their creation

Punishment

No crime can be said to occur where punishment has not been specified in the law

Other Features of Crime (3 of 3)

Necessary attendant circumstances

The facts surrounding an event

Additional elements that must be present for a conviction to be obtained

May increase the degree, or level of seriousness, of an offense

Elements of a Specific Criminal Offense

Element of a crime

In a specific crime, one of the essential features of that crime, as specified by law or statute

Elements of first-degree murder

Unlawful killing

Of a human being

Intentionally

With planning (or “malice aforethought”)

The Corpus Delicti of a Crime

“The body of the crime” or the facts that show that a crime has occurred

A person cannot be tried for a crime until it has been shown the crime occurred

Two key aspects:

A certain result has been produced

A person is criminally responsible for its production

The identity of the perpetrator is not an element of the corpus delicti of an offense

Figure 3.4 Body of Crime

Source: SCHMALLAGER, FRANK. J; HALL, DANIEL. E.; DOLATOWSKY, JOHN. J; CRIMINAL LAW TODAY, 4th Ed., ©2010. Reprinted and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Types of Defenses to a Criminal Charge

Defense

Evidence and arguments offered by the defendant to show why he or she should not be held liable for a criminal charge

Four categories of defenses

Alibi

Justification

Excuse

Procedural defenses

Alibi

The claim that the defendant could not have committed the crime because he or she was elsewhere at the time

Based upon the premise that the defendant is truly innocent

Denies that the defendant committed the crime

Best supported by witnesses and documentation

Justifications (1 of 6)

The defendant admits to committing the act but claims that it was necessary to avoid some greater evil

Claiming a moral high ground

Conduct that a person believes is necessary to avoid harm to himself or herself is justifiable if the harm the person is trying to avoid is greater than the harm that may be caused by his or her conduct

Justifications (2 of 6)

Self-defense

The defendant needed to inflict harm on another to ensure his or her own safety in the face of near-certain injury or death

Amount of defensive force must be proportional to that being faced

Reasonable force

The degree of force that is appropriate in a given situation and that is not excessive

Justifications (3 of 6)

Defense of others

Extension of self-defense to the use of reasonable force to defend others

Alter ego rule

A person can only defend a third party under circumstances, and only to the degree that the third party could legally act on his or her own behalf

Justifications (4 of 6)

Defense of home and property

Most jurisdictions allow property owners to use reasonable nondeadly force to protect property

Castle exception: There is no duty to retreat from one’s own home in the face of an immediate threat, even if retreat is possible, before using deadly force to protect the home

Justifications (5 of 6)

Necessity

The claim that some illegal action was needed to prevent an even greater harm

A useful defense in cases that do not involve serious bodily harm.

Consent

Defense that claims that whatever harm was done occurred only after the injured person gave his or her permission for the behavior in question

Justifications (6 of 6)

Resisting unlawful arrest

Resisting arrest is a crime in all jurisdictions

Resistance may be justifiable, especially if the arresting officer uses excessive force

Laws generally say that a person may use a reasonable amount of force, other than deadly force, to resist arrest or an unlawful search if the officer uses greater than necessary force

Excuses (1 of 11)

Defenses claiming that the individual engaging in the unlawful behavior was, at the time, not legally responsible for his or her actions and should not be held accountable under the law

Criminal liability may be negated on the basis of some personal disability the individual has or some special circumstances characterizing the situation

Excuses (2 of 11)

Duress

Any unlawful threat or coercion used by a person to act (or refrain from acting) in a manner he or she otherwise would not (or would)

Generally not a useful defense when the crime involves serious physical harm

Age

In most jurisdictions, children below age 7 cannot be charged even with juvenile offenses

Excuses (3 of 11)

Mistake

Mistake of law is rarely an acceptable defense (“Ignorance of the law is no defense”)

Mistake of fact may be a useful defense

Involuntary intoxication

The claim that the person was tricked into consuming an intoxicating substance, which created an altered mental condition

Voluntary intoxication is rarely a defense

Excuses (4 of 11)

Unconsciousness

An individual cannot be held responsible for anything he or she does while unconscious

Rarely used

Provocation

A person can be emotionally enraged by another who intends to elicit this reaction

Generally more acceptable in minor offenses

Excuses (5 of 11)

Insanity

Insanity is a legal concept, not a medical one

Defense based on claims of mental illness or mental incapacity

Rarely used and even more rarely successful

Excuses (6 of 11)

M’Naghten Rule—did the defendant know what he or she was doing or that the behavior was wrong

Irresistible Impulse—defendant unable to stop doing what he or she knew was wrong

Durham Rule—a person is not criminally responsible if his or her actions resulted from mental disease or defect

Substantial-Capacity Test—defendant lacked the mental capacity to understand the wrongfulness of his act or conform his behavior to the requirements of law

Excuses (7 of 11)

Difficulties with the insanity defense

Psychiatric testimony is expensive and expert witnesses often contradict each other

Society often not satisfied that justice is served when findings of “not guilty due to insanity” are made

Four states have barred the use of the insanity defense (Kansas, Montana, Idaho, Utah)

Excuses (8 of 11)

Guilty but mentally ill verdict (G B M I)

Some states use “guilty but insane” finding

A verdict, equivalent to a finding of “guilty” that establishes that the defendant, although mentally ill, was in sufficient possession of his or her faculties to be morally blameworthy for his or her acts

Judge may impose any sentence possible under the law but usually also mandates psychiatric treatment

Excuses (9 of 11)

Temporary insanity

The offender claims to have been insane only at the time of the crime

The insanity defense under federal law

Insanity Defense Reform Act (1984) uses a definition of insanity similar to that used in M’Naghten

Places the burden of proving insanity defense on the defendant

Excuses (10 of 11)

The consequences of an insanity ruling

Judge may order the defendant to undergo psychiatric treatment until “cured”

Defendants may spend more time in a psychiatric institution than would have been spent in prison

Diminished capacity

A defense claiming a mental condition that may be insufficient to exonerate the defendant but that may be relevant to specific mental elements of a crime

Abolished in some states

Excuses (11 of 11)

Mental incompetence

Refers to the defendant’s condition immediately before prosecution

Incompetent to stand trial

As a result of mental illness, the defendant is incapable of understanding the nature of the proceedings, of consulting with an attorney, and of aiding in his or her own defense

Procedural Defenses (1 of 5)

Procedural defenses claim that the defendant was in s

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In this journal entry, reflect on at least two things you learned or discovered through the Chapter’s readings.?Reflect on how a particular topic in the chapter was interesting, cha

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