1. Chapter 4 In Your Textbook John Massey Criminal Justice
Criminal Law
Chapter 4 In Your Textbook
John Massey
Criminal Justice

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

6. 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)

7. 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)

8. 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)

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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?

14. 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

15. 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.

16. Insanity Is now used in about half the states
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)

18. Insanity in Virginia The myths of the insanity defense
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…

19. 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

22. 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