The Purpose of Criminal Law

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Even though constituents of civilization may protest about the laws that control their daily lives and dispute in opposition to government power on principle, civilization could not accurately function without laws and without criminal regulation in particular. For centuries many have seen the principle of criminal law and of the government and the legal system collectively, as essential for the “smooth implementation of society and the conservation of order” (Duff, 2008).

This view of criminal law considers it as part of the social agreement planned by Thomas Hobbes. Others offer that the criminal law’s reason is to keep society secure from those who cannot obey society’s rules or to penalize those who violate society’s regulations (Duff, 2008). The criminal law can best be viewed, nevertheless, as having the intention to accomplish all of these requirements for society.

In the United States there are several sources of criminal rule. Criminal law is usually that law recognized by legislatures, as the Constitution provides them the freedom to do (Meloy, 2008). The analysis of what that written law defines by the courts further offers a basis of criminal law because it verify what persons can or cannot do that is considered as criminal or unlawful (Meloy, 2008). The United States has a very adversarial lawful system. The system was intentionally designed to be adversarial to make sure that the courts are unbiased to all parties. An adversary is an individual “that argue with, be against, or oppose” another individual, “an adversary” (Adversary, 2010). Even though defense attorneys and prosecutors in unlawful cases like they loathing each other in an unlawful case the two are actually significant and essential in criminal rule. ...

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...etrieved March 01, 2012, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adversary

CRS Annotated Constitution. (2010). Cornell University Law School. Retrieved March 01, 2012 from http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt5bfrag1_user.html

Duff, A. (2008). Theories of criminal law. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved March 01, 2012 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/criminal-law/

Meloy, M. (2008). Law and crime. Rutgers University. Retrieved March 01, 2012, from http://crab.rutgers.edu/~mlmeloy/courts_ch.2_law_and_crime_1_24_08.ppt

Robinson, P.H. (1999). Mens Rea. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 01, 2012, from http://www.law.upenn.edu/fac/phrobins/mensreaentry.pdf

Stevens, M. (2003). Incomplete (inchoate) crimes. California State University Fresno. Retrieved March 01, 2012, from http://faculty.ncwc.edu/mstevens/293/293lect05.htm

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