Criminal Law
Chapter 4 In Your Textbook
John Massey
Criminal Justice
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
Constitutional Law
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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
Statutory, Case, & Administrative Law
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Statutory Law
Enacted and passed by legislative bodies
Laws cannot violate constitutions
Congress/state legislatures
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Case Law
Laws that emerge from court decisions
Interpretations
Reviews of statutes, legsislation
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Administrative Law
Rules and laws of regulatory agencies
Created by agencies to carry out duties
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
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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)
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)
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)
Mala in se v. Mala prohibita
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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
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Mala in se: considered wrong even if there’s not a law that
prohibits it
Inherently wrong
Natural and moral law
Ex: murder
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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.
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.
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
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
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?
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:
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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
Insanity
 Definition of Insanity
M’Naghten Rule
 Daniel McNaghten in 1843
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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.
Insanity
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New Hampshire (Durham) Rule (1869)
Test of criminal responsibility is whether the act was the offspring or product of mental disease
in the defendant
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American Law Institute (ALI) (1962)
 Is now used in about half the states
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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.
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Insanity Defense Reform Act (1984)
NGRI finding for John Hinckley following 1982 assassination attempt of
President Reagan
Covers Federal trials
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 Prohibited experts from giving opinions about the defendant’s insanity
 Placed the burden of proof on the defendant (clear and convincing evidence)
Insanity in Virginia
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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
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Getting away with crime
Not being punished
Being released soon
And there are many more…
Other Criminal Defenses
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Intoxication (voluntary v. involuntary)
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Mistake/Ignorance
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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
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Unlawful pressure on a person causes the person to perform an act s/he normally wouldn’t
(ex: the movie Collateral)
Self-defense
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Not very successful
In many instances, a mistake or ignorance cannot be claimed and void one of liability
Justification Defenses
Duress
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Voluntary intoxication defense has been eliminated in 12 states
“the circumstances at the time made me do it!”
The harm prevented must be greater than the harm that you have done
Entrapment
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Citizen has been deceived by a government agent into committing a crime (that otherwise
would not have been committed
Your Rights
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Procedural safeguards
-found in two places
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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.
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2) Due Process Clause
-govt. decisions in prosecution should be
fair
-fair and just procedures
-reasonable, valid, and legal
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