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Criminal Law Information
Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of law
that punishes criminals for committing offences against the state. The goal of
this process is that of achieving criminal justice.
According to criminal law, crimes are offences against the social order. In
common law jurisdictions, there is a legal fiction that crimes disturb the peace
of the sovereign. Government officials, as agents of the sovereign, are
responsible for the prosecution of offenders. Hence, the criminal law
"plaintiff" is the sovereign, which in practical terms translates into the
monarch or the people.
The major objective of criminal law is deterrence and punishment, while that of
civil law is individual compensation. Criminal offences consist of two distinct
elements; the physical act (the actus reus, guilty act) and the requisite mental
state with which the act is done (the mens rea, guilty mind). For example, in
murder the 'actus reus is the unlawful killing of a person, while the 'mens rea
is malice aforethought (the intention to kill or cause grievous injury). The
criminal law also details the defenses that defendants may bring to lessen or
negate their liability (criminal responsibility) and specifies the punishment
which may be inflicted. Criminal law neither requires a victim, nor a victim's
consent, to prosecute an offender. Furthermore, a criminal prosecution can occur
over the objections of the victim and the consent of the victim is not a defense
in most crimes.
Criminal law in most jurisdictions both in the common and civil law traditions
is divided into two fields:
* Criminal procedure regulates the process for addressing violations of criminal
law
* Substantive criminal law details the definition of, and punishments for,
various crimes.
Criminal law distinguishes crimes from civil wrongs such as tort or breach of
contract. Criminal law has been seen as a system of regulating the behavior of
individuals and groups in relation to societal norms at large whereas civil law
is aimed primarily at the relationship between private individuals and their
rights and obligations under the law. Although many ancient legal systems did
not clearly define a distinction between criminal and civil law, in England
there was little difference until the codification of criminal law occurred in
the late nineteenth century. In most U.S. law schools, the basic course in
criminal law is based upon the English common criminal law of 1750 (with some
minor American modifications like the clarification of mens rea in the Model
Penal Code).
Types of criminal law are: Arrests and Searches, Drug Crimes,
Juvenile Law, Drunk Driving / DUI / DWI , Parole, Probation, Pardons, Violent
Crimes, White Collar Crimes and Military Law.
For more free legal information on Criminal Laws, please use the
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