CRIM LAW
8-19-09
What is this class about?
 Basic Principles behind criminal law
o Philosophical concepts of guilt & punishment
o NOT a class in criminal procedure
 Crimes
o Murder has always been a crime
o Never had a written law
 Criminal law
o Mostly statutory law
 Structure and sources of criminal Law
o Common Law
 Contains necessary laws and facts that are pertinent to the
application of punishment
 Larceny
 The taking and intent to permanently deprive
 The act of taking away
 What does it constitute?
o Statutory Law
 All federal criminal law is statutory
 State law mostly reflected in Model Penal Code
 Mostly what is drafted in this code are what the states
adhere to
 Socratic Method in this class
o This is not a bar prep class
o You will learn lawyering skills
 Rarely are there “right” or “wrong” answers
 But each principle has its limit
o Purpose is to test and push these limits, and that means I will test and
push you
o The issue of speeding and what penalty is appropriate?
 Depends on the circumstances presented during the event
 Location
 Total speed
 Designated speed limit
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 False imprisonment
 The act of detaining an individual against their will
 Locking the door and saying no one can go there
 Total confinement but not exclusion
 Punishment & Imprisonment
o What is a crime?
“what distinguishes a criminal from a civil sanction, is the
judgment of community condemnation it is conduct
which…will incur a formal and solemn pronouncement of the
moral condemnation of the community.”
 anything that deprives society of life, liberty, or
property
o life- murder
o liberty- false imprisonment
o property- arson or theft
o What are our rights for that we protect and cherish?
 Life, liberty, and property
 As prisoners
 Society deprives them of life, liberty, and property
Utilitarian (for the greater good)
o Deterrence
 Incentive driven by two variables
 Fear of punishment
 Enforcement Efficiency
o Certainty and enforcement of getting caught and
further conviction of crime
 This punishment is not effective if there isn’t a notification or
communication to society
 Calculating Deterrence
 Tax evasion scheme to get $150,000
 Fine if caught of $500,000
 Probability of getting caught is 1/5 (20%)
o Expected take $150K > Expected punishment
$100K ($500K/5)
o BUT if punishment is increased to $1,000.000,
then
 E.T. $150K > EP $200K ($1M/5)
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o Incapacitation/Isolation
 Removes individual from society
 Community cannot worry or fear from potential threat of
lurking predator
o Rehabilitation
 To make them better
o Education
 To teach society that it is bad to do this
 Wide exploitation of prosecution to open the eyes of society
 Prosecuting people for downloading music illegally
o Retribution
 The idea that individual gets what she or he deserves
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“An eye for an eye”
Punishment
o Utiliatian- LOOKS FORWARD
 Deterrence
 Rehabilitation
o Retribution- LOOKS BACKWARD
o Where does the victim fit in?
Alternative approaches
o Retributive justice is alien in some other cultures and legal systems
o “Restorative Justice” is an emerging principle, drawn from other
legal cultures
 Story of Crow Dog
 Native committed murder of another tribal leader on
Indian country where there was explicit tribal
regulations
o Restitution was enforced because tribal
community came together and agreed on
introversion and the giving of gifts for the act of
murder
 The Anglo Saxons enforced the murder and tried him
for murder
o Jurisdiction clash
 Post-conflict justice
 Bosnia
 South Africa