Essays on Criminal Law

What does the court mean when it says "Stare decisis is not an inexorable command; rather it is a principle of policy and not a mechanical formula of adherence to the latest decision"? Stare decisis is a Latin word that means to stand by what has already been decided. Therefore, in criminal law it is defined as the adherence of the current court system with the principles that has already been established by previous court decisions or rulings. In other words, it can be stated to be a principle of policy. Hence, it promotes reliance on the judicial ...

1 A I agree with Joh (2004)’s idea that there is a new silver platter doctrine in the making. Here, private cops now have the ability to present the “silver platter to local, state, and federal public policing agencies. Now, this doctrine focuses on the fact that private officials can turn over evidence to their federal counterparts without much regard to suppression even if the former obtained this information through illegal search processes. In essence, the doctrine does not allow public police agencies to conduct unreasonable search and seizure activities. Thus, all pieces of evidence obtained using this ...

Various Laws

As I will describe five different laws I want to give the definition of the word “law” itself. So law is “A rule of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority” (law, n.d).What is criminal law? Criminal law is one of the bodies of law which focuses on different crimes and defines punishment for them. The other name of criminal law is penal law. Criminal law proscribes different undesirable acts – everything that is harmful, threatening or somehow puts in danger the health, property, safety or moral welfare of people. The example of criminal law: law that ...

The criminal case involved four players who are a C.E.O., a hacker, a stock exchange broker, and detective. All the four players are important in determining how the crime is executed and how the criminals can be found easily. The case is on the facts that there is an insider trading scheme that involves the C.E.O. and the stock exchange broker. The scheme is illegal and thus there is a detective involved who is investigation the case. In this case scenario, the C.E.O. is in charge of a company that trades in the NYSE as a securities broker. The ...

The term ‘actus reus’ refers to the physical component of the crime, while ‘mens rea’ addresses the mental aspect of the offence. Situations, when the alleged perpetrator has the actus reus, but lack mens rea can be different, and a solution depends on the constituent components of a particular crime. First of all, strict liability offences and a range of other offences that differ across statutes and common law under different jurisdictions do not require proving mens rea. Strict liability often refers to minor offences (e.g., selling alcohol to an under-aged individual), where it is hard to determine the ...

How has the Constitution been able to remain a durable and viable instrument of government despite the enormous changes that have occurred in our society since its adoption? Discuss the issue in terms of specific changes. The Constitution speaks predominantly in terms of the protection of individual rights from governmental abuse or abridgment. What corresponding obligations and burdens must each citizen undertake or bear to ensure that everyone remains free to exercise these rights to their full extent? The criminal law, both procedural and substantive, is limited by the Bill of Rights in terms of protection of US population ...

Introduction

Every US citizen has a right not to have their privacy unreasonably intruded into according to the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution. Moreover, under this Amendment, search warrants shall not be issued to law enforcement officers unless there is probable cause that particularly describes the specific place that the police needs to search or the things subject to seizure. In the state of Florida, for example, the requirements of a search warrant are provided under Chapter 933 and include the existence of probable cause, search for only the property specified in the warrant, supported by an affirmation or ...

Q. 1 Constructive possession implies that illegal drugs have been found to be in place over which one has control and knowledge, such as drugs being found a warehouse store owned by a trader. Actual possession, on the other hand, refers to a situation whereby illegal substances have been found in the person, hand, or container that an individual owns or control. An example is where drugs are found in one’s pockets. Knowing possession is where one possesses an illegal drug with knowledge that it is a prohibited substance. Mere possession is physical possession such as possession of ...

Question and Answer- Criminal Justice

Question and Answer- Criminal Justice Q. 1 The main similarity between mens rea and actus reus regarding their roles is that both elements are ways through the criminal law ensures that only guilty actions or conduct and minds or intention can secure the safe legal conviction of accused persons. Moreover, they both play the role of making the role of the prosecution and defense easier when proving the commission of a crime. The difference is that while mens rea plays the role of helping the court know the accused’s intent at the material time, actus reus plays the ...

Introduction

Environmental concerns have created significant interests from various stakeholders with criminologists playing a critical role in responding to environmental harms. Environmental criminology applies to wide range of environments comprising of air, water, and land, and major issues such as overexploitation of natural resources and the emission of high volumes of toxic wastes in air, water, and soil. Multidisciplinary approaches have been adopted to help in curbing such environmental crimes whereby ecological, legal, economic, and social implications of the crimes have been analyzed by various stakeholders. Interventions have also led to extensive methods including monitoring, assessing the damage, enforcing legal ...

United States v. Willis, 38 F.3d 170, at 179 Kathy Evelyn Willis appealed a court decision which had found her guilty of possessing a firearm during a drug transaction. Willis was also convicted of a drug trafficking crime as she transacted with an undercover agent known as Officer Debbie Bond. The case also involves a man, David Perez who was said to be Willis's lover and the defendant argued that he forced her to transact the drugs, and also the gun under police custody belonged to him. Willis sold Bond ¼ pound of marijuana and at the time of arrest, ...

Overview

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act guarantees the security of patients and confidentiality of their medical records. Healthcare centers have put in place digital methods of recording data, which is secured by encryption or by private access keys that are only known to healthcare providers to enhance security. Healthcare practitioners have appreciated medical privacy with patients taking legal actions against violation of their privacy and confidentiality. However, healthcare providers have experienced ethical dilemmas in various situations where they are torn between their code of ethics, overall welfare of patients and other concerns such as national security. Mary (a senior ...

Introduction

One of the most common strategies of criminal defense attorneys when representing a defendant who has an unusual condition such as a mental abnormality, is to argue either that regardless of their actions, they are nevertheless not responsible for the crime or that they never had the capacity to commit a crime. The reason that criminal defense attorneys can make these arguments is that criminal law recognizes a number of unique situations where otherwise criminal conduct should not be subjected to a determination of guilt and the offender should be exempted from the crime (LaFave, 2000). These arguments, which ...

One of the peculiar aspects of criminal law is the ability to essentially increase, or decrease, depending on the particular factors of a case, the punishment that an offender would normally expect to have imposed after a conviction (Justia, 2016). These circumstances, which are formally known in criminal law as aggravating and mitigation circumstances, are often used to take into account important aspects of the case that may not have been properly addressed during the trial or plea negotiations. Aggravating and mitigating circumstances are normally applied under the discretion of the sentencing judge; however, for some crimes they might ...

Law enforcement agencies and the government have over time been synonymous to the enforcement of the law for public good. At the same time, the law enforcement agencies are tasked with ensuring that the rights of alleged perpetrators of any crime are protected from any sought of harm regardless of whether they committed the crime or not. In Jones’s scenario, a lot of legal and ethical issues arise. There are issues relating to the fact that she is a repeat offender, impact of her conduct to the society, the government’s role in the promotion of public order ...

The crime of criminal conspiracy is known in criminal law as an inchoate offence. An inchoate offense refers to one of three criminal acts in which the transgression is committed or takes place prior to or in preparation of another criminal act. In addition to criminal conspiracy, the other two common inchoate offences are solicitation and attempt. Regardless of the inchoate offense, it is important to note that each of the three offenses are complete crimes in and of themselves. In other words, a person accused of an inchoate offense can be found guilty of that crime even though ...

Introduction

How does the factor of gender impact the concept of violent offending? One of the most commonly held notions is that males have a higher propensity to commit violent crimes compared to women. This holding is one of the most widely held concepts in the area of criminology. However, there is a growing debate as to the scope of the “gender gap” in terms of violent offending has shifted in recent years. A number of commentators hold that the gap is described in terms of its stability; others proffer that there is an observable closing of the gap, particularly ...

Abstract

This book review examines the book Criminals in the Bible by Professor Mark Jones. It examines the bases and features of criminal justice and the criminalizing process across different timelines and eras. The review examines the constitutional elements of different criminal justice systems and generations and how it relates to specific aspects of society. The book review assesses and evaluates some of the elements of society including chapter analysis and how serious crimes occur. The main discovery of this book review is that crime and criminalizing is done within the context and framework of dominant constitutional processes and generally ...

Abstract

The criminal justice system in the United States provides Constitutional guarantees for all who are subject to the laws of the land. The three most controversial aspects of this system today are Search and Seizure, arrest, and interrogations. While these three aspects are the foundation of police action throughout the nation, there are several unresolved problems in how each of these processes is in use today. The presence of the law is not always the same as upholding it. The cases which made the case for the citizens are moving into obscurity with modern variations of the problems making ...

1) Do criminal justice professionals view crime differently from civilians regarding the elements of a crime? Explain your answer. Various views are different between the civilians and that of justice professionals. Many people think that a crime is only considered after it has happened, yet justice professionals, advice that details of a crime are considered even before the offense occurred, especially when the criminal was planning the particular crime. It is also important to document even the smallest details of a crime; many people think that the offense is all about the major event that occurred (Report Writing – Elements ...

IN THE SUPREME COURT

BETWEEN: CHARLES WAITROSE Appellant and

REPUBLIC OF CANADA Respondent

APPELLANT SKELTON ARGUMENT _________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The agreed facts of the case as it was before the trial and first appellate court were that Florence Waitrose, 8, had been suffering from an inoperable malignant brain tumor for six months. Despite receiving significant amounts of medication to help abate her pain, she continued to suffer considerably in the terminal stages of her life. All other curative treatments had ceased, and she was being nursed at home by her parents. Her father, Charles Rose, under the feeling that neither he nor his daughter could cope any longer with ...

Theoretical Essay

In the world of law punishment (alternative name – penalty) is considered as an “infliction of some kind of pain or loss upon a person for misdeed (i.e., the transgression of a law or command).”1 Penalty may take different forms and vary from forced labor, flogging, body mutilation, fines and imprisonment to the capital punishment. The punishment has been very retributive, mostly in the form of revenge, during the pre-modern ages and usually the prosecution was executed by the victims or their families. There was not any proportion between the quantity and quality of wrongdoing and the punishment. The ...

Introduction

Gun control legislation is a very controversial topic and one that has taken a lot of attention in both academic and public policy circles here in the United States for the past 20 or 30 years. One of the most powerful tools which people have discovered to dealing with the issue of controlling who should or shouldn’t have access to guns is through the creation of background checks. The purpose of background checks in a general sense is to allow for gun sellers and overseeing authorities to make sure that they are selling weapons to only those individuals ...

Business law is all about creating a system that is governed by a specific set of rules and regulations and in view of the research and studies done during the semester, the significance of state constitutions, statutes, and regulations impacting personal and professional lives are well documented. For a nation or a society to prevail, it is of paramount importance that the ‘Criminal Law’, is implemented in a manner that helps in serving numerous functions of the society and benefitting the society in many ways, starting with maintaining the order to avoid chaos in the society, resolving disputes amongst ...

MEMORANDUM

Introduction: The RICO Criminal Defense Practice The RICO Act is very significant considering the prevalent infiltration of organized crimes in trade and commerce which remarkably eroded the stability of the national economy by influencing legitimate businesses and labor unions. Organized crimes have become global and the same becomes a threat to national economy and even corrupt and subvert the democratic process in the United States. The RICO Act helps in preventing organized crimes involved in racketeering from infiltrating legitimate organizations that are involved in the interstate and foreign commerce. With its wider scope of criminalizing the offenders, the growing ...

The program at hand is very interesting and definitely has significant scientific value. I enjoyed the learning process in full and recommend it to everybody who wants to improve their knowledge in Criminal Law. The course is developed for undergraduates, but its importance and sufficiency are enough for proper academic research and powerful insight into Criminal Law. I was impressed how exciting the course is and how useful the skills gained at it are. Apart from this, the course makes a powerful insight into academic requirements for researchers and scientists. The ability to use scientific resources and apply my ...

Issue

In examining the criminal liability of the four persons about the death of Betty, several issues should be focused on approval or disapproval of any liability. In the case of Naveed, there is a need to prove whether he committed an actus reus in his threatening Betty. In the case of Peter, we need to establish under which circumstances and criminal law he might have been the causal link in the shooting, injury and eventual death of Betty. Also, there is a need to prove whether there was any state of mind with criminal liability and intent to cause ...

In this July 2013 trial, George Zimmerman stood accused of the second-degree murder of teenager Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman had shot Martin in February 2012 after a confrontation between the two in Sanford, Florida. From the beginning, Zimmerman defense team did not deny that he had shot Martin but rather that he shot Martin in self-defense (Linder, 2014). Claiming self-defense is one of the fundamental principles of exculpation in criminal law. The theory underlying exculpation holds that in some situations although a person has otherwise acted criminally, their actions are justified and therefore should not be subject to punishment. In ...

The Biblical Scripture and the U.S. Civil and Criminal Codes

Research Paper

Introduction Almost all countries nowadays comply with one of two main legal systems-- civil law or common law. The civil law system originated from continental Europe and was implemented by European colonizers, like Portugal and Spain, in their respective colonies. On the other hand, the common law system was developed in Great Britain and was implemented in the British colonies. In the 19th and 20th centuries, civil law was accepted and enforced by countries previously implementing unique legal systems, like Japan and Russia, which aimed at reforming their legal ...

Crimes against Persons

Crimes against persons are those criminal conducts punishable under penal law and which are mainly committed against individuals as the victims (Gardner & Anderson, 2014, p.25). In such categories of crimes, the perpetrator or offender normally has the intention to cause the victim actual grievous bodily injury and harm. Examples of crimes under this category include rape, assault and murder.

Crimes against Property

These are a category of crimes in which the offender intends to take another person’s property with the intention of permanently depriving the owner of the property without necessarily intending to use force against them. Examples of these crimes ...

Insanity defense, as it is known in many jurisdictions refers to the assertion by a person accused of criminal prosecution that at the time of committing the criminal act(s) they were not in the right state of mind as to appreciate the wrongfulness of their acts. Insanity has been invoked in many jurisdictions to reverse legal decisions or acquit people accused of crimes and it comes forth as the perfect defense. Whenever it is applied, it permits a person who is factually guilty to escape punishment and incarceration. Canadian laws have numerous circumstances exempt individuals from criminal responsibility ...

Question 7: Common Law and Civil Law

Common law is a legal system that emphasizes on court decisions and that judges have the authority to make laws where no lawmaking statutes exist. It also incorporates legislative precedence as the primary source of law thus ensuring that the law remains precise, uniform and consistent. This type of law has its structure based around adversarial systems whereby two parties - the defense and the prosecution teams - are pitted against each other with the faith of finding the truth. Common law has its origin traced back to England during the middle age period and nations such as the ...

A growing number of the Uber drivers and the consequences of cheaper and faster transport could be reached in expense of greater risks and lack of safety. All should know the safety stakes of getting into the Uber car. The real question is does the new online transportation or rideshare network as one of the fastest growing industries in the world with the provision of a more convenient and substantial service than traditional taxi cap represents greatest safety risks for the customers. Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) is the largest online transportation network company and one of the most popular ...

Introduction

The Armenian Genocide, which is otherwise known as Armenian Holocaust was the methodical annihilation of members of the Armenian minority within the borders of their native land which is now the Republic of Turkey. Historically, the Armenians are descendants of the ancient people even before the first century of the current era, and were the first nation to deeply adopt Christian culture, which makes them different from other people in the neighboring regions. Most of the genocide committed against the Armenians was carried out in 1915, and the rounding up and killing about 600,000 to 800,000 people ...

Application Paper

I have learnt about individual and society, and came to know that everyday feelings, activities, actions, and thoughts of an individual are a result of complex interaction between many social forces and characteristics of an individual at personal level. Sociological imagination is a capability of considering influence of social forces on personal lives of individuals. There are three major types of rules in every society, which are norms, values, and mores. Rules can be in the written form, or they can be just known. However, people individuals who break unwritten rules are called deviants, while those who are involved ...

One of the leading trends in the economic theory of crime and punishment has become an economic analysis of organized crime. Prohibition era has led to an increase in crime and the formation of a huge number of organized criminal groups of black and significant enrichment of crime. "The condemnation of blackness" examines what constitutes a crime as a socio-economic institution, what are the economic characteristics of its functioning, how it affects society and what are the laws of its evolution. The segregation of the black population has forced many of them to go to the North. From 1913 ...

On the Criminal Justice System of any country lies great responsibilities for the general well-being of the country itself and for the citizens. Without a well-organized Criminal Justice System, the world would be in criminal chaos.

Definition of Crime

The study of Criminal Justice System has certainly to begin with the definition of crime. Criminal lawyers have been disputing over it for years and still there is no consensus as to the only, profound and unified definition of crime. Surely, crime is an offence, with which criminal law deals. One more certainty is that criminal courts operate the notions of crime (Farmer, ...

Abstract

A plea bargain has defined the court proceedings in the recent history of the criminal justice system. As such, prosecutors and judges have adapted to the policy to carry on activities while practicing copping plea arrangements so as to reduce the number of pending cases and the pile that characterizes most of the district magistrates’ courts. On one side, the idea of a plea bargain has greatly enhanced the efficiency of the legal systems. This is because it has reduced the time for prosecutors to work on various trials as well as reducing the instances of overcrowding in jails ( ...

Personality of the offender - a set of socio-psychological characteristics and qualities, which are the causes and conditions for committing crimes. Criminal’s personality is different from the personality of law-abiding person by public danger, it is characterized by criminal needs and motivation, emotional and volitional deformation and negative social interests. The problem of offender’s personality is one of the central problems for sciences, which are connected with criminology. Criminology examines the socio-demographic and moral-psychological characteristics of offender. In addition, crucial for this topic and for criminology as a whole is a question of what the nature of ...

Introduction

Although the legal system of the United States of America is one well-known in the world due to its extensive depiction by the media, basic familiarity of other legal systems, and, relevant aspects of international cooperation issues is an indispensable element of a law enforcement professional expertise. This research discusses the differences in substantive and procedural law, judicial review, policing systems and international police cooperation between the United States of America and the United States of America.

Substantive Law

Substantive law matters in the USA and the UAE are dramatically different. Thus, both civil and criminal substantive law provisions in the ...

The United States judicial system offers certain protections for criminal suspects who are at risk of arrest or a search without a warrant. One of the most important safeguards afforded under the U.S. Constitution is the 4th amendment, which prevents government officials from illegally searching individuals or seizing property without following standard procedure. The concept has evolved over time, and the exclusionary rule is now the primary way to defend people from illegal search and seizure by government officials. However, history has shown that this is an ineffective solution because it allows those who would have been convicted to ...

Over the last like forty years, there has been a rapid emergence of criminal cases which is believed to be attributed by the expanding level of globalization. Although the use of internet and inventions in the information technology industry is beneficial, there are those who have used it to facilitate their criminal activities. Any act considered as a felony to the society is a crime. For instance, if one person robs another that act is regarded as an offense to everyone in the state. Examples of other crimes are homicide, rape, burglary, a conspiracy among others ("Key Cases: Criminal ...

Introduction

The type and theory of punishment a convicted criminal receives different in different parts of the world. The rehabilitative theory of punishment had been used predominately in early America but had the system has transformed into a retributive model. Many Western Countries adhere to the theory of rehabilitation as a theory of punishment. On the other hand, there are many countries to favor the retributive model of punishment. Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries adhere to the idea that the offender must pay for the crime. Both the rehabilitative and retribution theory of punishment have social and philosophical implications. ...

Introduction

There are four ways through which individuals in the world ultimately expire or die. The four include suicide, murder, accident and natural death. Among the four ways, the one that attracts the most attention is murder. Murder, also referred to as homicide, is the act of one individual killing the other. However, there are sometimes when homicide is not criminal. For example, a person can kill another while defending themselves. In other cases, someone may be given the authority by law to take the life of the other individual who may have committed serious crimes.

A Summary of the History and Evolution of the Law Regarding Murder

In developing the homicide ...

Deviant behavior does not adhere to the cultural norms and social accepted norms (Akers, 2011). Deviance comprises of behavior that violates expectations and standards of conduct of a group or society. Crime is one of the forms of deviance. In this paper, crime has been described as major type of deviance. Crime is considered as an act of deviance because in crime norm as well as law is broken. Crime as deviant behavior can be minor or it can be major such as it can be picking an individual’s nose or it can be commitment of murder. There ...

Islam in Saudi Arabia

Introduction. In his book Islam in Saudi Arabia David Commins takes us through the journey of Islam as a religion in Saudi from the eighteenth century up to the twentieth century. Chapter three is titled Wahhabism and the modern state. Wahhabism rose when Wahhab and Ibn Saud signed a pact giving rise to the state of Saudi Arabia. Having been promised power and religious legitimacy by Wahhab, Ibn Saud then pledged to ensure that the teachings of Wahhabism were carried out in the entire Kingdom. In this chapter, we see how subsequent rulers handled crisis through initiating changes like ...

Introduction

Criminal law and even general law enforcement have several rules and regulations that are implemented in order to procure a more stable and relatively just and safe environment for the people of a country. The Constitution allows several statutes which determine how criminals and deviants are supposed to be treated. This is important so that their treatment and procedure of treatment serve as a deterrent for the rest of the people, and they are able to understand how truthfully justice has been served. There are several domains of this procedure as described in criminal law and comes under search ...

In my research paper, I decided to open the concept of judicial protection of the juvenile justice system. However, to understand more the problem and all aspects, firstly, I need to explain what the criminal law is and when it was formed. The Criminal Law of the United States was formed and developed under the influence of English law of the precedents. The USA is federal country, which has federal criminal laws and criminal laws of individual states. These two systems are parallel. The federal criminal laws set only responsible for the crimes that infringe on the security of ...

One of the purposes of criminal law is to impress upon the public the necessity of acting in a manner that society or the state deems desirable. One way that the state achieves this purpose is to impose punishment on those found guilty of undesirable conduct (LaFave, 2000). Naturally, over the course of criminal law in human history, multiple theories of punishment have been developed. Two such theories are contained in the classical and positivist schools of criminological analysis. In order to understand the differences between these two schools, it is important to first understand some of their fundamental ...

Introduction

The Trayvon Martin shooting of 2012, in which George Zimmerman shot a 17-year-old black youth whom he believed was acting in a threatening manner. The controversy surrounding the murder and its subsequent trial brought up intriguing and complicated discussions surrounding Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws, which stated Zimmerman had the right to defend himself with deadly force if he felt threatened. Stand Your Ground laws have encountered a great deal of discussion in recent years due to this case and many others, in which the issue of being able to defend yourself with lethal force is taken into ...

Pre-trial process denotes the actions, conferences, and motions that take place afore the real court trial. They mostly take place between the prosecutors and the attorneys and can either be with/without the process of a judge or jury. Against the apprehension of many people, most cases are disposed at this stage explaining why there are plea bargaining in most cases. Conferring to Scheb & Scheb, (2011), the pre-trial process adheres to a well-laid structure, they have numerous variations depending on the sternness of the misconduct committed by the offender. The pre-trial process takes place for various reasons. For instance, they ...

Introduction

Punishment is the system used by society to enforce the desired standards of conduct, and to deal with the offender after a crime has been committed . Two common theories of punishment include the retribution theory and the incapacitation theory. The retribution theory seeks to punish an offender who has committed a criminal act. The incapacitation theory seeks to deter or prevent future crime. Both theories seek to convey justice.

Retribution theory

The retribution theory of punishment is the oldest theory of punishment. The retribution theory of punishment rests on the idea that those who violate the law should be punished for ...

Criminal law as any other system of law is subject to changes. The nature of these changes is fully dependent on the broader context of the state versus society relationships. What is of a particular interest to us in the paper are factors that cause criminal law alteration. Among the major ones we can cite the following factors: lobbyists, media, the individual citizens and criminal justice agencies. Let us go into detail on the question of how the mentioned constituents of the legal process really bring about the major changes. Lobbying can be defined as acts of people, associations ...

Dharma is under the teachings of Buddhism as a religion which was practiced by the Hindu people in Ancient India. To understand dharma we must first understand the religion itself. From the previous chapters of the book we realized that Buddha was the founder of the religion. Buddhism is a form of religion whose inception was in India. Buddhism as a religion gained followers who were supposed to follow certain regulation, and that’s where Dharma originated as a teaching under Buddhism religion. According to the teaching of Buddhism, Dharma is comprehended as the way of the living of the people who practice ...