Criminal Law Foundations Evaluation If laws were not in place, individuals could not hold onto their individual properties. Social life would be impossible without laws to help control the way people behave, think and treat each other while in public and private locations. Criminal laws were designed to reflect the accepted behavior in a community, such as morals and the criminal act itself, or Mens Rea and Actus Reus. Thus when people break the law and are caught, the accused are provided certain constitutional rights. Criminal law consists of bodies of regulations and rules that will specify and define the punishments for the wrong committed against society or the state.
Criminal Procedure Policy Paper CJA/ 364 Criminal Procedure May 29, 2012 Criminal Procedure Policy Paper The role the criminal justice system plays in society is expansive. Criminal justice is designed to keep the public safe, to stop wrongdoing, to punish wrongdoers, and to provide order to society. Given this broad role there will be times when criminal justice will not perform all roles well. This means, of course, that criminal justice will often fail to meet public expectations. Ultimately, the needs people have for criminal justice mean that they believe the criminal justice system should be designed to pursue goals that fulfill
In this essay we will assess the usefulness of these functionalist theories, and look at how it helps us explain crime. One functionalist who tried to explain crime is Merton and his strain theory, the strain theory argues that people engage in the deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means. Merton explanation combines 2 elements; structural factors- society’s unequal opportunity structure, cultural factors- strong emphasis to achieve goals and weak emphasis on using legit means. Merton uses the strain theory to explain some patterns of crime in society, he argues a person’s positioning in society affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain to anomie. Merton gives 5 different types of adaption; Conformity- the individual accepts socially acceptable goal and achieves it through legitimate means, Innovation- Individual accepts the role of success and wealth but uses illegitimate means to achieve them, Ritualism- Individual give up on legitimate goals but still follow strictly to the rules, Retreatism- Individuals reject legitimate goals and means of achieving them e.g drug addicts, the final type is Rebellion- Individuals reject existing goals and means but replace them with new one in desire to bring about revolutionary change.
While the “crime control” model contemplates that, the criminal justice system has an adverse consequence and progressively stops the process of arresting people within the criminal justice system. The “due process model” is demonstrating that a suspect is guilty and is significant to keeping the government under control and protecting the rights of the suspect. The criminal justice system should be expending more financial resources to employ more law enforcement officers instead of building more prisons and rather than expending money, defending the rights of citizens is the thought of the crime control model (Zalman,
Lastly, this paper will define what inchoate offense is and will compare it to elements of additional criminal offenses. In order to fully understand criminal law, one must also understand its purpose and its sources. Criminal law has many purposes, but to sum it all up, according to Schmalleger (2010), “criminal law protects the law-abiding citizens while maintaining social order through the conviction and sentencing of the criminals. Criminal law provides protection to all law abiding individuals and will sentenced the ones who committed the crimes. Criminal law has many sources, one is the Constitution.
Unless the government is able to prove the existence of these elements, it can't obtain a conviction in a court of law. The due process model is a model of the criminal justice system that stresses that every criminal justice conclusion is built on scrupulous information. Due process stresses the adversarial process, the rights of defendant and the rights of the formal decision-making procedure. It is vital to realize that courts allow individuals to defend themselves based on entrapment, self-defense or insanity. These, however, must be proved appropriately to allow courts practice fairness in defenses.
It does however explain why some people or actions are described as deviant, and can help in understanding crime and deviance. According to item A labelling has changed the theoretical base for the study of criminals. Becker emphasises the significance of crime being a social construct; an action only becomes criminal or deviant once society has labelled it so, and that crime can be argued to be a social construction. He introduced the concept of a master label, referring to the label which a person is given which overrides all other labels. When a person is labelled as negatively, society tends to tend them as such, and this master label often becomes internalised, and then a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs.
Mr. Beccaria and other members of the Classical School fought for punishment to be set by legislative instead of judges having all of the authority for punishment. The members of the Classical School of Thought believed that preventing crime was more important than punishing the criminal. When criminals know what the punishment is going to be for the crimes that they are going to commit it will help to deter the crimes from being committed. When people do commit crimes the crime is done of their own free will. This procedure of knowing the punishment with it being severe to the
Two Models/Criminal Process Ashley Lawrence CJA/364 June 8,2013 Mathew Taylor Two Models/Criminal Process Two models within the criminal justice system play very important roles. One may say that within the political world the two models may even conflict with each other. Crime control model may be more liberal focusing on society and crime, which as for due process is to focus more on a fair opportunity for the one that is accused and many see it as conservative. The 4th, 5th, 6th, and fourteenth amendment all play important roles within the due process model, and the criminal justice system, to make sure everyone is given a fare trial. Due process occurs when fare treatment is given throughout the judicial system.
Differential association “Sutherland introduced the concept of differential association, which he developed into a theory to explain the process by which an individual engages in criminal behaviour” (http://www.oup.com/ us/pdf/reid/Reid_ Chapter6.pdf) which is the first of Akers key elements is differential association. This refers to ones exposure to, and interactions with, others. The impact of this exposure may vary according to the rate of recurrence, how long the exposure and the intensity of this exposure, to others. Definitions The second of Akers key elements is definitions. This element refers to attitudes or level of approval individuals hold regarding morals and laws in general as well as specific deviant behaviours.