Criminal Law: Chapters 1-3

16 November 2022
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law
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"that which is laid down, ordained, or established...a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by controlling authority, and having binding legal force"
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The study of Criminal Law is a study of...
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crime, moral principles, and common law
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Norm
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an unwritten rule that underlies and is inherent in the fabric of society
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more
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an unwritten, but generally known rule that governs serious violations of the social code
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Criminal law
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the body of rules and regulations that defines and specifies punishments for offenses of a public nature or for wrongs committed against the state or society
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Our definition of a crime
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an act prohibited or an omission required by law
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natural law
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the rules of conduct inherent in human nature and in the natural order, which are thought to be knowable though intuition, inspiration, and the exercise of reason without the need to refer to man-made laws
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positive law
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law that is legitimately created and enforced by governments
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common law
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law originating from use and custom rather than from written statutes; term refers to non-statutory customs, traditions, and precedents that help guide judicial decision making
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tort
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the unlawful violation of a private legal right other than a mere breach of contract, express or implied; may also be the violation of a public duty if, as a result of the violation, some special damage accrues to the individual
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tortfeasor
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an individual, business, or other legally recognized entity that commits a tort
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substantive criminal law
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defines crimes and specific punishments
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procedural criminal law
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defines the processes that may be used by law enforcement, prosecutors, victims, and courts to investigate and adjudicate criminal cases
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felony
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a serious crime, generally one punishable by death or by incarceration in a state or federal prison facility as opposed to jail; punishable by one year or more
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misdemeanor
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a minor crime; an offense punishable by incarceration, usually in a local confinement facility, for a period of which the upper limit is prescribed by statute in a given jurisdiction, typically one year or less; punishable by one year or less
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infraction
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a violation of a state statute or local ordinance punishable by a fine or other penalty, but not by incarceration; also known as summary offense
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mala in se
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acts that are regarded, by tradition and convention, as wrong in themselves
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mala prohibita
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acts that are considered "wrongs" only because there is a law against them
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crime classifications, modern style
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property crimes, personal crimes, public order offenses, and moral offenses
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The Bill of Rights
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the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, which were made part of the Constitution in 1791
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Case Law
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the body of previous decisions, or precedents, that has accumulated over time and to which attorneys refer when arguing cases and that judges use in deciding the merits of new cases
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stare decisis
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"stand by what has been decided" or "let the decision stand"; embodies the idea that cases with like facts should have the same law applied
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statutory law
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law in the form of statutes or formal written codes made by legislatures or governing bodies with the power to make law
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jurisdiction
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the geographic district or subject matter over which the authority of a government body, especially a court, extends the authority of a court to hear and decide and action or lawsuit
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3 Branches of Government
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Legislative Branch: makes the law Executive Branch: enforces the law Judicial Branch: Interprets the law
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3 Essential Element/ Aspects of all crimes
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The criminal act (actus reus), A culpable mental state (mens rea), A concurrence of the two
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Actus reus
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guilty act
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mens rea
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guilt mind
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criminal liability
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the degree of blameworthiness assigned to a defendant by a criminal court and the concomitant extent to which the defendant is subject to penalties prescribed by the criminal law
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concomitant
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existing or occurring with something else, accompanying; concurrent: an event and its concomitant circumstances
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conduct
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behavior and its accompanying mental state
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thinking is not doing (2)
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thoughts are not actions in the sense of "actus reus"; people who might feel guilty about their own thoughts can't be arrested for just thinking
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Being is not doing (3)
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to be something is not a crime, to do something may be a crime; a person who admits to being a drug user can't be arrested just for being a drug user; some kind of action is needed
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knowing possession
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possession with awareness of what one possesses
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mere possession
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possession in which one may or may not be aware of what he or she possesses
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actual possession
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possession in which one has direct physical control over the object or objects in question
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constructive possession
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the ability to exercise control over property or objects, even though they are not in one's physical custody
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omission to act
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an intentional unintentional failure to act, which may impose criminal liability if a duty to act under the circumstances is specified by law
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2 forms of mens rea
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general intent; specific intent
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general intent
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the form of intent that can be assumed from the defendant's behavior; an actor's physical conduct
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specific intent
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a thought, a conscious intention to perform a specific act in order to achieve a particular result
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4 states of mind
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purposeful, knowing, reckless, negligent
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purposeful
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a desire to cause the outcome that resulted
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knowing
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action taken with awareness that the outcome is practically certain
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reckless
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activity that increases the risk of harm
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negligent
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activity in which a person fails to reasonably perceive substantial and unjustifiable risks of dangerous consequences
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State of mind: insanity and mens rea
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the ability to form a statute's requisite mens rea can be prevented or hindered by mental illness
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concurrence
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requires that the act and the mental state occur together in order for a crime to take place; provides the third fundamental aspect of crime; if one precedes the other, the requirements of the criminal law are not met
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Motive
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the desire that compels/drives a person to intend to do something, not an element of the crime and does not need to be proven in order to find guilt; often used to establish the existence or absence of intent
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corpus delicti
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facts that show that a crime has occurred "body of the crime"
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2 components of the corpus delicti of a crime
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a certain result has been produced; a person is criminally responsible for it
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corpus delecti consists of a showing of... (2)
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the occurrence of the specific kind of injury; someone's criminal act as the cause of the injury
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additional principles of criminality
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causation, resulting harm, the principle of legality, necessary attendant circumstances
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additional principles of criminality: the principle of legality
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ex post facto laws, bills of attainder, double jeopardy, void-for-vagueness principle
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causation in fact
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an actual link between an actor's conduct and a result
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proximate cause
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the primary or moving cause that plays a substantial part in bringing about injury or damage. it may be a first cause that sets in motion a string of events whose ultimate outcome is reasonably foreseeable.
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legal cause
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a legally recognizable cause: the type of cause that is required to be demonstrated in court in order to hold an individual criminally liable for causing harm
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harm
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loss, disadvantage, or injury or anything so regarded by the person affected, including loss, disadvantage, or injury to any other person in whose welfare he or she is interested; "resulting harm"
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the principle of legality
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reflects the fact that behavior cannot be criminal if no law exists that both defines it as illegal and prescribes a punishment for it.
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principle of legality
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an axiom that holds that behavior cannot be criminal if no law exists that defines it as such
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ex post facto
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"after the deed or after the fact"
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double jeopardy
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a second prosecution or a second punishment for the same offense which is prohibited by the 5th Amendment; "that no person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb"
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void for vagueness principle
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US Supreme Court "A statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at it's meaning"
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Chicago v. Morales 1999
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US Supreme Court held that a city ordinance that prohibited criminal street gang members from loitering in public places was unconstitutionally vague and an arbitrary restriction on personal liberties; the ordinance fails to give the ordinary citizen adequate notice of what is forbidden and what it permitted, it is impermissibly vague
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ordinance
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to remain in any one place with no apparent purpose is too vague
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necessary attendant circumstances
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statutes defining crimes may specify that additional elements be present for a conviction to be obtained
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attendant circumstances
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"facts surrounding an event" and include such things as time and place
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bill of attainder
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a legislative decision that an individual is guilty of a crime
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"but for" rule
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another way of determining causation; it looks to see whether some injury would not have happened but for the conduct of the accused.