Criminal law

Student: Matea Golem

Subject: Legal English
Professor: Katja Dobrić Basaneže, prof.
Faculty of Law
University of Rijeka
2017.
 CRIMINAL LAW (common law – the U.S.)
1. What is criminal law?
2. Sources of criminal law
3. What is considered a crime?
4. Legal elements of a crime
5. Participants in a crime
6. Types of crimes
 What is criminal law?

• a branch of public law concerned with punishment of individuals

engaged in criminal behavior

• the people, as a whole, decide whether a person committed a crime

and what the punishment should be
 Sources of criminal law
Common law
 only on state level since 1812.
Statutes
all 50 states have their own penal codes
derived from common law
Model penal code (MPC) – from 1962.
serves as a base for replacing existing criminal codes
 used as a tool for comparison
 What is considered a crime?
A “crime” is any act or omission in violation of a law prohibiting it, or
omitted in violation of a law ordering it.1

• conduct/behavior dangerous to citizens or damaging to the society as

a whole

• breaking the law by an act (COMISSION)

• breaking the law by NOT doing something ordered by law (OMISSION)

 Legal elements of a crime
• CORPUS DELECTI – the body of the crime
• ACTUS REUS
• „guilty act”

• MENS REA
• „guilty mind”

• CONCURRENCE – the link between actus reus

and mens rea
 ACTUS REUS - guilty act
• the act of comitting a crime

1. Commission – movement, verbal, possession

2. Omission – failure to act there is a legal duty to do so

(by contract, law or relationship)
• Person A is thinking about killing person B but doesn’t act on it, there
is no actus reus -> there is no crime
 MENS REA – guilty mind
• a particular state of mind
• the INTENT to commit a crime

• Person A is sleepwalking and kills person B using a knife – there is no

mens rea -> the person is NOT guilty
 Participants in a crime
• Principal in the first degree – those who actually commit the crime
• Principal in the second degree – those whole helped in the actual act
of a crime in any way
• Accessory before the fact – those who helped to commit the crime,
without actually being present at the moment of it (accomplice)
• Accessory after the fact – those who were involved in helping the
criminal while aware of their act
 Types of crimes
Misdemeanors Felonies
• punished by less than a year in • typically punished by more than
prison a year in prison
• e.g. public intoxication, • e.g. murder, rape, robbery, and
vandalism, possession of burglary
marijuana
 Other crime categories
• Drug crimes - use, transportation, purchase, and sale of illegal drugs
• Street crime - ocurring most frequently on urban streets
• Organized crime - criminal organizations that supply illegal goods and
services
• Political crime – political goals motivate political criminals
• Victimless crime – only the criminal is hurt (use of illegal drugs)
• White‐collar crime - commited while acting in legitimate jobs and
professions
• Gold-collar crime
 SUMMARY
• Criminal law – a branch of public law concerned with punishment of
individuals who commit crimes
• General sources of criminal law – common law, statutes and The Model
Penal Code
• A crime – an act dangerous to citizens or harmful to the society
• Legal elements of a crime – corpus delecti, actus reus, mens rea and the
concurrence of actus reus and mens rea
• Participants in a crime – principal in the first/second degree, aaccessory
before/after the fact
• Misdemeanor – lighter crime
• Felony – serious crime