FOUNDATIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF LAW

 Provides funding for criminal justice agencies  Creates criminal laws  Determines sentencing guidelines

 Pre-Historical Era (Earliest History-2000 B.C.)  Societies based upon clans, tribes, or kinship  Customary Laws based upon social norms  Informal but effective law enforcement  Chiefs or elders served as judges  Use of Irrational justice  Reliance on religious, ethical, and mystical considerations

 Early Historical Era (2000 B.C A.D.)  Development of Written Codes  Egyptians, Babylonians, Hebrews  Greeks and Romans  Significance of Early Historical Legal Systems  Establishment of written codes  Emergence of different roles in the legal system  Great Influence on the legal systems of Europe and the U.S.  Influence of Canon Law (church law) on legal systems

 Modern Era (1000 A.D.-Present)  Renaissance (1300s to 1600s)  Age of Enlightenment (1700s)  Reemergence of natural law  Belief that there is a divine source of law higher than any other  Absolute and unchangeable law that is applicable to all people

 Penal Law  Criminal actions that a society prohibits  Compensatory Law  Civil law dispute among private individuals  Therapeutic Law  Focus on helping and treating an offender’s criminal behavior  Conciliatory Law  Focus on resolving conflict and providing a winning outcome for both parties

 Code law systems  Developed from Roman and Napoleonic Codes  Features  No judge-made law  Emphasis on the rights of the victimized community  All laws are written in a complete code  Inquisitorial legal system  Decisions by judicial panels

 Broad ruling documents are interpreted by judicial review  Judicial rulings are considered a source of law  Emphasis on the rights of the accused  Adversarial legal system  Decisions by juries

 Civil Law  Disputes between private parties (plaintiff and defendant)  Standard of persuasion is Preponderance of the Evidence  Both parties may be at fault (contributory negligence)  Attorneys may represent a client on a contingency fee  Sanctions include monetary damages and injunctions  Criminal Law  Offenses against society (prosecutor brings the case on behalf of the government  Standard of persuasion is Beyond a Reasonable Doubt  Defendant has the right to counsel  Sanctions include fines, probation, or jail/prison time

 Substantive Law  Defines the acts that are crimes  Defines the penalties for criminal acts  Procedural Law  Defines how a case must be processed  Attorney appointment  Jury selection  Evidence admissibility  Criminal investigation  Sentencing

 Common Law  Based upon a community’s norms and values  Applied through stare decisis, or application of prior judicial rulings to similar cases  Constitutional Law  All other laws must comport with the U.S. Constitution  State laws must also comport with that state’s Constitution  Constitutionality determined by appellate judges

 Statutory Law  Written laws enacted by legislative bodies  Encompasses almost all U.S. criminal laws  Case Law  Judges create law by deciding constitutional law issues  Judicial policymaking  Administrative Law  Federal and state agency regulations have the force of law  Published in the Federal Register

 Degree of Evilness  Mala in se: action that is evil in and of itself  Mala prohibita: action that is wrong because of a law prohibiting it  Offense Seriousness  Felonies  most serious offenses  include possibility of imprisonment for over one year  Misdemeanors  lesser offenses  include possibility of imprisonment for less that one year  Petty Misdemeanors  potential sentence of fines only

 Mens rea  Criminal intent or motivation  Actus reus  Criminal act  Does not always have to be completed  Concurrence  Mens rea and actus reus must be present at the same time  Defendant must have criminal intent and must act upon that intent

 Conspiracy  Two or more people form an agreement to commit a crime, and  commit an overt act toward the completion of the crime  Solicitation  One person tries to persuade another to commit a crime on their behalf  Attempt  A crime is started, but is not completed

 Justification Defenses  The defendant’s actions were not legally wrong  Excuse Defenses  The defendant’s actions were legally wrong, but an extenuating circumstance excuses the action

 Self-defense  A person may use necessary force in an attack  The person cannot be the initial aggressor  Necessity  A person may commit a criminal act to save himself from forces of nature  Example: hikers break into a cabin to save themselves from death in a snowstorm

 Duress  A person commits a crime due to threat of bodily harm  Entrapment  A person commits a crime that was initiated by another person  The person who committed the crime would not have done so otherwise  Infancy  A person who committed a crime was too young to form criminal intent  Minimum age is set by statute  Insanity  A person was unable to form criminal intent due to mental illness  Intoxication  A person was unable to form criminal intent due to involuntary intoxication  Alibi  A person could not have committed a crime because they were somewhere else

 Classified by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports  Crimes against Persons  Crimes against Property  Crimes against Public Order  Other Offenses

 Aggravated Assault  Murder and Nonnegligent Manslaughter  Forcible Rape  Robbery

 Larceny/Theft  Burglary  Motor Vehicle Theft  Arson

 Breach of the Peace  Fighting/Affray  Disorderly Conduct  Public Drunkenness  Unlawful Assembly  Carrying Weapons  Obstructing Traffic  Animal Abuse

 Crimes against Public Welfare  Crimes against Public Morality  White Collar/Corporate Crimes  Modern Crimes  Crimes Against the Government