Criminal Law
and Procedure
Unit 2 Chapter 4
Legal Environments of Business (LEB)
Criminal Law
• 4-1 Criminal Law – This lesson defines the elements
present in the definition of most crimes, examines how
crimes as classified, and focuses on crimes of particular
significance to business.
• 4-2 Criminal Procedure – This lesson opens with a
justification of our legal system’s perspective on criminal
law (innocent until proven guilty), discusses the logical
extension of this perspective into the rights and defenses
available to a criminal defendant, discussion of criminal
penalties, and detailing trial procedure in criminal cases.
Standards
• BMA-LEB-2 Compare and contrast the relationship between
ethics and law for a business
• BMA-LEB-3 Explain and illustrate through simulation the
process by which a legal dispute is resolved for a business
and personal issue
• BMA-LEB-4 Investigate major crimes affecting business and
the impact on a business
• BMA-LEB-5 Evaluate the use of tort law in a business setting.
• BMA-LEB-10 Explore how related student organizations are
integral parts of career and technology education courses
through leadership development, school and community
service projects, entrepreneurship development, etc.
Essential Question
• What are white collar crimes?
• How can various types of crimes affect
businesses?
• What elements make up a criminal act?
• What is a crime?
• What are possible types of punishment
for business crimes?
4-1Criminal Law
Crimes & Criminal
Behavior
• A crime is a punishable offense against
society.
• In order to convict, the prosecution must
establish:
o Whether you had a duty imposed by criminal statute
to do or to do a certain thing
o An act or omission in violation of the duty,
o And in most cases, whether or not you had criminal
intent
• Vicarious criminal liability – substituted;
criminal intent of the employee is used as a
substitute for the requirement of criminal intent
for an officer.
• Criminal intent is also related to age. Under
early common law, children under age 7 were
considered incapable of formal the intent
necessary for crimes.
• Those over 14 were presumed capable of
recognizing the difference between right and
wrong.
• What is a crime for an adult is considered
juvenile delinquency for a minor .
• Lack of mental capacity to know the
difference between right and wrong can be
a defense to being held responsible for the
commission of criminal acts.
• Insane persons are not held responsible
for their criminal acts; however, people
who voluntarily become intoxicated or
drugged are held responsible.
• Some minor crimes do not require the
element of criminal intent. Ex. Traffic
offenses
Criminal Intent
• Ex. A driver exceeding the speed limit without
noticing, yet still be in violation of the law. In
certain circumstances, extreme carelessness
may be considered the same as criminal intent.
• Suppose you drive 80 miles per hour through a
residential neighborhood while drunk and kill a
pedestrian with your automobile. You may not
have intended to strike the pedestrian but you
conduct was so careless that in many
jurisdictions courts will treat it the same as
criminal intent. You could be convicted of the
crime of vehicular homicide.
Classification of
Crimes
• Crimes are generally two categories:
felonies or misdemeanors.
• Some states classify minor misdemeanors
as infractions.
• Felony – crime punishable by confinement
for more than a year in a state prison or by
a fine of more than $1,000 or both or even
death. Ex. Murder, kidnapping, arson,
theft large sums, forgery, embezzlement,
perjury, and hate crimes.
• Misdemeanor – a less serious crime.
• Usually punishable by confinement in a
county or city jail for one year or less; by
a fine of $1,000 or less, or both. Ex.
disorderly conduct and speeding.
• Some states classify lesser
misdemeanors as infractions. Persons
convicted of infractions can be only fined
and the person convicted is not entitled
to a jury trial. Ex. Parking violations and
littering.
• Crimes in which a business may
be the victim include robbery,
burglary, shoplifting, employee
theft, passing bad checks,
vandalism, receiving stolen
property, and embezzlement.
White-Collar Crimes
• Offenses committed in the business world.
• These crimes do not involve force or
violence and do not cause physical injury
to people or physical damage to property.
• As a result, courts tend to be more lenient
with white-collar crimes with punishment
usually including fines and/or a short
prison sentence.
• Some crimes in which a business
person or firm may be the
perpetrator are income tax
evasion, price fixing, false
advertising, not paying income
tax, stock fraud, filing false
insurance claims, and bribery.
4-1 Criminal
Procedure
• Anyone accused of committing a crime has certain due
process rights. These rights include:
o Freedom from arrest without probable cause
o The right to be represented by a lawyer
o The right to cross-examine witnesses
o The right to not testify against oneself
o The right to a speedy, public, fair trial
Procedural Defenses
• Procedural defense - relate to the way
evidence is obtained or the way the
accused person is arrested, questioned,
tried, or punished.
• A defense - the legal position taken by an
accused to defeat the charges against him
or her.
• Ignorance of the law is not a defense.
Substantive defense
• Substantive defenses -disprove, justify, or excuse the
alleged crime.
• Discredit the facts that the state sought to establish.
• Self-defense is the use of force that appears to
reasonably necessary to the victim to prevent death,
serious bodily harm, rape, or kidnapping.
• Criminal insanity generally exists when, because of a
verifiable mental disease or defect, the accused does not
know the difference between right and wrong.
Common substantive
defense
• Common substantive defenses are self-defense,
criminal insanity, and immunity.
• Immunity – freedom from prosecution even when one
has committed the crime charged. (may be granted in
an agreement to testify about the criminal conduct of
others).
• Contempt of court – action that hinders the
administration of justice. It is a crime punishable by
imprisonment.
• Any penalty provided by law and imposed by aa
court is called punishment.
• Crimes are punishable by fine, imprisonment, or
in some jurisdictions and situations, execution.
• An accused person ma agree to plead guilty to
take a less serious crime in exchange for having
the more serious crime dropped – plea bargain.
• The accused gives up the right to a public trial to
avoid the risk of a greater penalty if convicted.
• Plea bargains must be approved by a judge of
the court with the criminal jurisdiction over the
case.
Criminal procedure
• Criminal procedure begins with the
investigation of the crime, gathering
of evidence , identification and arrest
of an accused. It may extend to an
arraignment, preliminary hearing, trial,
conviction, and appeal.
• Indictment – written accusation declaring
that there is sufficient evidence to try the
identified individual for a specific crime.
• An accused must be indicted by a grand
jury in lieu of information before a person
can be brought to trial for a felony.
• Arrest warrant is issued(written court
order for the apprehension of the accused)
and the individual is arrested (taken into
custody)
• Defendant is then brought to an
arraignment (during which formal charges
in the information or indictment are read).
Defendant is allowed to plead to the
accused charges.
• If the defendant pleas “not guilty”, he or
she can elect to have a preliminary
hearing (evidence against the accused
will be presented to the court so it can
determine whether there is sufficient
evidence for trial)
• Bail – sum of money or property
deposited or pledged to guarantee
that the arrested person will appear
for a preliminary hearing or trial.
• Amount in each case is set by the
judge.
• In some serious cases, where
possible flight danger, judge will
refuse to set bail.
Preparation for Trial
• Prosecution and defense seek supporting documents.
• Subpoena may be obtained by prosecutor and
defendant ( a command to an individual to appear and
testify or produce documents or other evidence in his or
her possession in court).
• Procedure at trial – preliminary exam of potential jurors,
referred to as voir dire (determined by their ability to
judge ably and impartially the matter to be placed before
them.
• After answering questions to the voir dire, attorneys have
two types of challenges:
• Challenge for the good cause –any ties of jurors to the
defendant; juror can be dismissed (ex. Birth, marriage,
employment)
• Preemptory challenge – have prospective jurors
automatically dismissed without having to state any
cause.
• Opening statements (attorney for each side
gives that briefly outlines the evidence intended
to offer)
• Evidence – includes anything that provides
information used to prove or disprove the
defendant committed a crime as defined by
criminal statue.
• Testimony – evidentiary statements made by
witnesses in court under oath. Physical evidence
such as reports, documents records, charts,
weapons, photographs are placed before the
court.
• Direct examination – side calling witness
conducts this; opposing side may perform
a cross examination; the calling side then
has an opportunity for a redirect exam to
perhaps counter some questions raised on
cross.
• Expert witness – those who possess
superior knowledge about a subject in
dispute are called to give opinions.
• Following the presentation of evidence,
attorneys give closing remarks.
• Instructions (judge specify the required
elements of the alleged crime that must be
shown by evidence beyond a reasonable
doubt in order for the jury to convict the
defendant.
• Verdict – decision of the jury (or judge if a
jury is not sitting).
• If a unanimous verdict of “guilty” or
“not guilty” cannot be obtained after
considerable deliberations, the jury is
considered to be a hung jury.
• The case is then dismissed by the
judge, but it may be brought again at
the discretion of the prosecuting
attorney. If the verdict is “not guilty”
the accused is set free.
• If the verdict is “guilty”, the judge will
convene a sentencing hearing in
extreme cases.
• Trial comes to a end with the passing
of judgment in the from of sentencing
with incarceration and/or fine as
punishment or the judge may release
the convicted on probation (a
restricted status that allows the
convicted limited freedom)