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Comparing and contrasting criminal and civil law
Comparing and contrasting criminal and civil law
Comparing and contrasting criminal and civil law
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Differences of criminal law and civil law
• Criminal law refers to rules and statues that define conduct prohibited by the government because it endangers society. It prohibits and punishes wrongful actions. The plaintiff is the prosecutor who files the complaint and the defendant is the individual or organization who have appeared to broken the law. The purpose is to deal with the disputes between individuals and/or organizations, in which compensation is awarded to the victim. Almost always a jury is involved, who is a group of peers determining whether or not the accused is guilty.
According to, The Nature of Criminal Law, Constitutional Rights, Defenses, and Punishment, through the Saylor Foundation (page 316), criminal law is an
• Injury to the public
• Prosecuted by the government
• An attorney provided if the defendant can’t afford one.
• Burden of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. Beyond a reasonable doubt is standard of proof from the prosecutor, which must be surpassed to convict an accused.
• Conviction may result in civil disabilities or loss of liberty. Penalties potentially include fines, imprisonment or both.
Civil law is concerned with private parties
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They consist mostly of aggravated assault, arson, assault and battery, domestic violence, hate crimes, homicide, manslaughter, mayhem, murder, terrorism and theft/larceny. These crimes are also considered Mala in se because they are wrong by nature or by natural law. These are all criminal crimes and are punishable by fines, imprisonment or both. Typically they are not in the business world. However, if you have an employee that is very angry and full of hate for their boss they may set fire to their place of business. This kind of conduct will fall under a violent crime of arson, punishable by law with imprisonment or possibly the death
Criminal law attempts to balance the rights of individuals to freedom from interference with person or property, and society’s need for order. Procedural matters, the rights of citizens and powers of the state, specific offences and defences, and punishment and compensation are some of the ways society and the criminal justice system interact.
The second component of the criminal justice system is the court system. They court system is composed of lawyers, judges, and juries. Their job is to insure that everyone receives a fair trial, determine guilt or innocence, and apply sentences on guilty parties. The court system will contain one judge, and a jury of twelve citizens. The jury of the court will determine the guilt or innocence of the individual. The jury will also recommend a sentence for the crime the individual committed. Even though the jury makes the recommendation for the sentencing of the crime, the judge will follow pre-determined sentencing guidelines to make a final decision.
Crime is some action/omission that causes harm in a situation that the person/group responsible ‘ought’ to be held accountable and punished irrespective of what the law book of state say.
Within the Federal Government there are three main branches; “the Legislative, the Judicial, and Executive” (Phaedra Trethan, 2013). They have the same basic shape and the same basic roles were written in the Constitution in 1787.
In conclusion, as shown throughout this paper, evidence is needed to convince jurors to give a verdict of guilt or not guilt. Evidence comes in several forms such as physical evidence, substantial evidence. When evidence is presented, it acceptance in trial depends on relevant to the case to be admissible. “Relevance refers to any material fact or evidence having a tendency to make the existence of a matter at issue more probable than it would be without said fact (probative value)”(Britz, 2008, p. 344).
The criminal trial process is able to reflect the moral and ethical standards of society to a great extent. For the law to be effective, the criminal trial process must reflect what is accepted by society to be a breach of moral and ethical conduct and the extent to which protections are granted to the victims, the offenders and the community. For these reasons, the criminal trial process is effectively able to achieve this in the areas of the adversary system, the system of appeals, legal aid and the jury system.
A criminal is obviously an individual who commits a crime, but what is crime? A crime is any act or omission of an act in violation of a public law. Though most laws are common throughout America, some laws are also established by local and state governments as well. Criminal laws and penalties vary from state to state. Crimes include both felonies and misdemeanors. Felonies are serious crimes like murder or rape and are punishable by imprisonment for a year or more. The consequence for felonies such as murder and treason can be the death penalty. Misdemeanors are less serious crimes like petty theft or speeding and are punishable by less than a year in prison. Fines are also punishments of both misdemeanors and felonies. The fine’s amount is determined by the seriousness of the case. However, no act is a crime unless it has been stated as such by an American law or statute.
“ Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime.” (Wikipedia, 2014) This law encompasses several different aspects of our government and the ways used to regulate them. Maintaining the peace and order of the public is one aspect. Law enforcement officers also try to keep good conduct of the public. Anyone who places the safety of the public in jeopardy, is in violation of this law. Punishment is used in a variety of ways to discipline any person who breaks these laws. There are four main sources used in today’s criminal law:
When you think of a criminal what do you think of? A person who breaks the law? A person who did a deed gone wrong? How about a person who is thought to have murdered someone but with only little to no evidence? Well there are many different aspects of criteria to consider and also many different circumstances or situations that may arise when it comes down to identifying someone as a criminal. One could easily define a criminal as one who breaks the law, one who endangers the people around them and themselves, and that they are not doing the crime for the greater good. The dictionary form of a criminal says “: involving illegal activity : relating to crime : morally wrong : relating to laws that describe crimes
A tort is a wrong. More precisely, a tort is a violation of a duty imposed by the civil law. When a person breaks one of those duties and injures another, it is a tort. The injury could be to a person or her property. In a tort case, it is up to the injured party to seek compensation. She must hire her own lawyer, who will file a lawsuit. Her lawyer must convince the court that the defendant breached some legal duty and ought to pay money damages to the plaintiff. A crime is an act so threatening that the government itself will prosecute whether the injured party wants the case to go forward. A district attorney, who is paid by the government, will bring the case to court seeking to send the defendant to prison. If there is a fine,
Chapter one of the Criminal Law book talks about the Purpose, Scope and its Sources of Criminal Law. It is like an introduction as to what one should know pertaining to general criminal law. It shows what the three branches of law which are: judicial, legislative and executive, and what they do as pertaining to the law. It tells us the difference between Substantive Criminal Law, Moral Law, and Criminal Law. The difference between the two is that Substantive Criminal Law is that is, “Substantive Law defines the standards of conduct that the society and the community require for the protection of the community as a whole.”
The criminal justice principles start with the concept of legality. Legality refers to the question of whether or not there is a law that has been broken. In order for an act to be considered illegal, it must violate a current criminal law. These laws come from court decisions known a “common law” and others come when “…the public demands protection against “new” crimes and in response to new situations”. (Adler, 2012)
Legal crimes are an act that violates the law in itself but is considered legal given the situation. For example; killing someone in self defense violates the law, however; murder in itself is a crime, but protecting one's life if threatening by bodily harm or injury is legal. Therefore, killing in self defense is a legal crime. Legal crimes are acts that are not harmful to another person, however; these acts are defined as crimes by society because of the influence these crimes have on those who are in authority. Legal crimes are less serious because they cause less harm, are not as frequent and are not as widespread. People who commit assault, fraud, embezzlement, vandalism, prostitution, and disorderly conduct are committing legal crimes. Legal crimes are not an obvious crime and do not have an obvious victim. However, not all crimes are reported to the police, therefore crimes are classified by the degree of harm caused, how frequent they occur, and how pervasive the crimes are throughout the country. Crimes can be distinguished by degree or severity of the crime by dividing the crimes into groups; felonies for severe crime and misdemeanors for less severe crimes. Another way to distinguish crime is between mala in se which is rape or murder or mala prohibita, which is trespassing, gambling, or prostitution. Once the public understands that the balance is the goal of "justice" the next step is to understand the difference between a natural crime and a legal crime.
Criminal law has several purposes depending on how people view it. A few of the functions of criminal law are to divide criminals from society, rehabilitate the criminal and punish the offenders. However, the two main functions of criminal law are to create an understanding of right and wrong to the society and punishing those who break the law.
Criminal and Civil Law – Criminal law is the law through which public commitment of crimes are prosecuted by governing bodies, whereas civil law is the law through which private parties may bring lawsuits against one another for real or imagined wrongdoings. E.g. criminal law would deal with the prosecution of a crime such as one person hitting another with their car, and civil law would deal with the lawsuit, as the person hit would sue the driver of the car for monetary compensation.