The Purpose of Criminal Law - Essay Example

? This paper was prepared for the _________ taught by ____________. This paper is about Criminal law: What it is, what it stands for and its implications. The following paper is also about its history, justifications and significance. It also includes certain aspects of criminal law. Criminal Law The Purpose of Criminal Law Laws are made in order to regulate the society and ensure harmony amongst the members of the said society. Criminal law defines what crimes are and it sets the rules for the legal actions against criminals. The main purposes of having criminal laws are just twofold: to state public morality and to set the boundaries within the society. In a society, there are various non-verbal practices that have been put to law, because the members of the society deem it as offending or inappropriate. So when an individual violates a rule which is establish by the society, or perhaps a public moral, then that individual would be punished for intentionally breaking the rule, because his action implies that he is intentionally causing disharmony to the society. Law, or criminal law in this case, seeks to have these individuals accountable for the criminal actions they have committed. This is done through having legal actions against them, like imprisonment or fines. Criminal law is based on many written sources, all of them from laws. These are constitutional, administrative, statutory, common and case laws. Constitutional law deals with the U.S. Constitution: how it has to be interpreted and implemented. All the laws are subordinate of the constitution. If, say, a law is in conflict with the Constitution, the Supreme Court acts on it and deem it unconstitutional. Administrative laws are made by the government offices, agencies and commissions. They are semi-judicial or semi-legislative in character but they often have criminal penalties. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are examples of administrative agencies that make this kind of laws. They can also formulate rules and investigations and also impose sanctions. Statutory laws are those which are passed as statutes by the Congress and other state legislative bodies. The federal government has its own set of statutory laws as well as the state government. Federal law sometimes overlaps with the federal law. Common law is based on the universal practices and notions of the society. It is also known as judge-made law, where the judges created the common law by ruling that certain actions are deemed as crimes and they are punishable. The judges also defined that certain offenses like rape and murder are crimes against the state. This originated in England in the twelfth century. Case laws are laws that laws that have resulted from court decisions and interpretations of statutory law. This is often the result when certain court decisions have not yet been codified. One of the most common justification and excuse defense used is self-defense and insanity. A justification or excuse in jurisprudence is a defense against criminal charges and it’s commonly used as a means to grant exception for a person which may have criminal liabilities (excuse) or as a means to vindicate an act (justice). These defenses have similar but different functions. Justification was already seen in Early English law but they were for remission of the criminal’s punishments, which is basically just a dismissal of criminal charges. Justification also means that criminal charges be dismissed because an individual enforcement of the law or for the benefit of the public. Excuse began as a plea for mercy and often used psychology to support the acts of crime. Therefore, justification implies that it is for the common good, and for the uniformity of the people in the society while excuse is a highly individualized defense, depending on the accused psychological assessment. For example, self-defense is commonly used as a justification defense. It implies that even home-owners who had their homes invaded by robbers, for instance, can actually use deadly force to counter this threat. They can claim that this act is actually beneficial to the society. The usual excuse, insanity, is often used when the accused is mentally unstable when he committed the crime. Medical examinations are done to support this claim. Usually, the criminal is committed to a psychiatric hospital after the trial. American Constitutional Rights As been said, the law defines what crimes are and they also determine how to define these crimes and also defines the legal actions when confronted with the said crime. It also sets the procedures for arrests, interrogations, searches and the like, apart from assigning procedures on how to successfully penalize the accused. Procedural safeguards are procedures that are designed to protect one’s legal rights. This means that even if one is an accused, he still has rights and these rights have to be followed as these accused are also part of the society and they are also constituents of the law. The due process is a legal principle that states that the government must respect the legal rights of the person as dictated by the law (Keynes, 1996). Generally, the law prohibits anyone, the government included, from infringing on any person’s liberties. When the government actually harms a person because they did not follow the law, it is called a due process violation. The Due Process Clause in the Constitution actually states that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law”. This is also similar to the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment in the Constitution also protects against the abuse of the government in any legal procedure. It is part of the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights applies to all the residents of the United States, even the aliens. The Bill of Rights was actually based on the English Bill of Right which was passed in 1689 (Lewis, 2002). It protects three different types of Human Rights: Rights of the Conscience, Rights of those Accused of Crimes and Rights of Property. Examples are (respectively), the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech and Religion), Eighth Amendment (Freedom against Excessive Bails and Fines), and Fifth Amendment (No one may be Deprived of Property). The Bill of Rights is actually incorporated into the Due Process (Lewis, 2002). It is in the Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution. They were first incorporated in 1897. This implied that the Bill of Rights is actually guaranteed to everyone. The Supreme Court, however, has consistently held that the Fifth Amendment is more or less the same as the Fourteenth Amendment. By the end of 20th century, almost all provisions of the Bill of Rights had been declared binding on all states except for five: The Second Amendment (Right to bear arms), Third Amendment’s prevention against involuntary quartering of troops, Fifth Amendment’s requirement of having a Grand Jury indictment in capital cases, Seventh Amendment’s provision for having a trial by jury (in civil cases), and the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of excessive bails and fines. Bibliography Berman, M. (2003). Justification and Excuse, Law and Morality, Duke Law Journal Vol. 53, No. 1.  Keynes, E. (1996). Liberty, Property, and Privacy: Toward a Jurisprudence of Substantive Due Process. University Park: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press. Lewis, T T., (2002). The Bill of Rights. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press. Read More