Criminal laws are also called penal laws. Criminal law is the body of statutory and common law dealing with crime and the legal punishment of legal offenses based on the four theories of criminal justice system, namely, punishment, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation. All this imposition of sanctions about the crime is to achieve justice and a peaceable social order.

The objective of criminal law is to exert social control. It aims at discouraging behavior that is detrimental to the well being of the society as well as behavior that challenge the government’s authority and legitimacy.

The criminal laws and punishments are so set up that they act as deterrents and help in restraining behavior of the people. With criminal laws handling the setting up of procedures for punishing offenders the state and not the victim (who may be seeking vengeance) hands down the punishment.

The criminal charges are filed and the criminal proceedings take place in a series of stages. It is the police who respond and take action to any citizen’s complaint lodged. The police may also feel suspicious and in such case they investigate, take down statements from various important witnesses and based on the findings make ready a report. They can arrest people during the course of the investigation. They may alternatively (as is usually the case) complete the report and submit it to the prosecutor’s office for evaluation. It will be the prosecutor who will be deciding whether or not criminal charges will be filed against any suspect named in the police report. The procedures for filing charges, however, vary among jurisdictions. Read the rest of this entry »

The concept of punishment makes a major distinction between criminal law and civil law. While in civil law there is no prosecution per se; rather a reimbursement to the plaintiff by the losing defendant, in criminal law a guilty defendant is punished by imprisonment, fines, or the death penalty. In criminal law, maximum sentences on felonies could go to up to a jail term of one year and for misdemeanors a maximum sentence of less than one year. A civil case conducted under tort law can lead to punitive damages if the defendant’s conduct is proved to have intentions for malicious action (cause harm), negligence, willful disregard to other people’s rights.

Compensation for the Plaintiff under Criminal Law

These damages are usually significant in torts that involve such cases as privacy invasion, which may involve a dignitary; and civil rights in cases where the injury or harm done when translated to monetary form is minimal or negligible. Punitive damages are usually intended to teach the public a lesson through the defendant so that the same act may not be repeated. However, these damages are never awarded under contract law where there is a previous contract or agreement involved beforehand. Read the rest of this entry »

Criminal law involves different rules that can cause the prosecution of a person for acts identified as crimes by the government. People found guilty of committing a criminal act would be incarcerated, fined, or both. Committing a crime means violating public laws which are established by the federal government, the state or the local government. These include felonies such as murder and rape as well as misdemeanors such as petty theft or jaywalking. Most felonies are punishable by one to two years imprisonment while misdemeanors are punishable by less than a year inside the slammer or other lighter punishments such as community services depending on the weight and kind of crime committed.

Ancient civilizations such as the Sumerians were the first to write codes of laws but did not distinguish civil and criminal laws. Most violations of the written laws were punished accordingly by physical punishment such as whipping or caning, incarceration which may vary from a day to life, house arrest, paying damages, or execution. As the written laws developed and distinguished civil laws from criminal laws, criminal sanctions are enforced according to five objectives:

• Retribution – the aspect of making criminals pay for the crime they committed by placing them at some unpleasant disadvantage
• Deterrence – this aims to sufficiently penalize offender to discourage him and other offenders from committing the crime and other criminal behavior Read the rest of this entry »