Criminal Law

Criminal Law

Criminal Law

Criminal law is the area of law that deals with crimes and their respective punishments. Like other laws, criminal law has evolved over hundreds of years and remains in a constant state of flux (McClain & Kahan, 2002, 456). Today, modern criminal law is merely the culmination of a great many influences. Those influences are as old as the traditional common law or as current as the Model Penal Code (Low, 1998, 45). These influences tend to increase and decrease over time. In time, new laws will be adopted and old laws will be repealed (Frase, 2002, 3). However, there is one overarching principle that remains constant: The goal of all criminal laws is the protection of the health, safety, and welfare of society.

Laws seek to control the conduct of a community or society while providing for the rights of the citizenry (Dressler, 2001). Most laws developed over the centuries relate to resolving disagreements between people that arise in the daily conduct of their affairs. One of the earliest known sets of laws dates back to 1750 BC (Garland, 2003). King Hammurabi of Babylon created a set of 282 laws, known as the Code of Hammurabi. However, it was not until the development of English common law in the Middle Ages that the process of creating modern written law began. Once William of Normandy conquered England, he established the Eyre, a circuit court held by itinerant royal justices who heard cases throughout the kingdom and recorded its decisions. These decisions integrated the unwritten common law of England based upon custom and usage throughout the land (LaFave, 2003).

Today, the practice of recording a court's opinion is still in use. In the United States, the opinions of some trial and most appellate courts are preserved in a book of decisions called a reporter. Typically, decisions interpret the law, both substantively and procedurally, and decide the constitutionality of both the statute and the action of government officials in enforcing the law.

Criminal law and torts, a branch of civil law, are very similar in some respects. Typically, tort law includes negligence, libel, slander, assault, battery, and fraud. In some instances, a tort can be a crime. However, it is important to note that tort law is primarily concerned with a financial loss, and bad conduct is only of secondary importance. Conversely, criminal law is concerned with bad conduct irrespective of financial losses (Singer, 2002). A central theme in criminal law is that conduct that jeopardizes the health, safety, and welfare of the community should be punished despite the absence of actual harm. For example, if Fred, unbeknownst to Barney, aims and shoots a handgun outfitted with a silencer at Barney but misses, he is still criminally culpable. The fact that Barney is completely unaware of the attempted murder does not clear Fred of wrongdoing. However, Barney would likely be precluded from suing Fred at tort, having suffered no visible physical or mental damages because he is totally unaware of ...