Criminal Law (United States)

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As criminal law ( English criminal law is) referred to United States law , a field of law, "the crimes [(Engl. Crime, offense )] defines against the community as a whole, determines how determined against suspects as indicted, as against them is negotiated and what penalties are imposed on convicts. "

Crime ('criminal offense') as a core element of criminal law

US law describes a crime as "an injustice affecting the general public, either directly or indirectly, which the state counteracts with certain penalties and sanctions and which it pursues in its own name in what is known as ' criminal proceeding '." The term offense is often, but not always, a synonym for crime. A crime is made up of actus reus , mens rea and causality. Criminal offenses can also often have consequences under tort law . The purposes of criminal law are deterrence , rehabilitation and retaliation .

Criminal acts arise from common law . If an act is not punishable under common law , it can only be punishable if it is declared punishable by a law (statute) or the constitution, which is generally applicable at the time of the offense .

United States criminal law falls principally within the legislative competence of the states . The Model Penal Code contains a summary of the most important criminal law definitions ; however, it is by no means a codification, but merely an aid to interpretation.

Mens rea (guilty ghost)

The different forms of intent of the mens rea according to common law are:

  • specific intent means to commit an action with a specific intention. Specific intent is not required for all criminal offenses, but only for so-called crimes of specific intent. These are: solicitation , attempt , conspiracy , assault , larceny , robbery , burglary , forgery , false pretenses , embezzlement and first degree premeditated murder;
  • malice (~ malice) writes the reckless (reckless) disregard an obvious or high risk of damaging certain Taterfolgs (Particular harmful result). Malice is required for common law murder and arson (~ arson).
  • general intent.

In § 2.02 Model Penal Code these classic forms of intent were abandoned. The MPC prefixes are:

purposely
according to § 2.02 (a) MPC "[a person] acts willfully [ (purposely) ] in relation to an essential element of a criminal offense, if:
(I) if the item has to do with the nature of their behavior or a result of it their conscious [ (conscious) is] goal is to behave in this way, or to cause such a result; and
(Ii) if the element concerns the accompanying circumstances, it is aware of the existence of those circumstances, or believes or hopes that they exist. "
knowlingly
under Section 2.02 (b) MPC "[a person] is knowingly [ (knowingly) ] acting in relation to an essential element of a criminal offense, if:
(i) if the item concerns the nature of their misconduct or the circumstances surrounding it, it is aware that its conduct is such or that such circumstances exist, and
(ii) if the element is a result of its behavior, it is aware that it is practically certain that its behavior will cause such an outcome. "
recklessly
according to § 2.02 (c) MPC "acts [a person] recklessly [ (recklessly) ] in relation to an essential element of a criminal offense, if he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable danger in relation to the fact that the essential element exists or himself results from their behavior. "
negligently
according to § 2.02 (d) MPC "[a person] acts negligently with regard to an essential element of a criminal offense if he or she should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable danger that the essential element exists or will result from his or her conduct . "

Defenses (defense objections )

US criminal law does not distinguish between justification and apology in the same way as, for example, German criminal law . Rather, it regards these two procedurally as defenses. Which includes:

  • insanity (mental illness)
  • intoxication (intoxication)
  • Self-defense (self-defense)
  • necessity (emergency)
  • duress (compulsion)
  • mistake (mistake)
  • entrapment (provocation by law enforcement agencies).

Individual offenses

So- called inchoate offenses (~ incomplete criminal offenses) are recognized as solicitation (~ inciting), conspiracy (~ conspiracy) and attempt (~ attempt). Inchoate offenses can only be committed in relation to an accomplished crime. The conspiracy (conspiracy) includes an agreement between two or more persons, the intention to reach an agreement and to achieve the intention of the objective of the conspiracy agreement; most states also require an overt promotion. All conspirators are liable to prosecution for all crimes of other conspirators, if their crimes were foreseeable and which promoted the conspiracy. The most important offenses under the still applicable English common law are:

murder
Unlawfully killing another person with malice aforethought. Malice aforethought means the resolution either to kill or to commit serious bodily harm (~ serious bodily harm) or with reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (~ reckless indifference to a danger to human life, so-called depraved heart murder ) or im Framework of a felony (~ murder as part of another crime). If the victim has provoked the perpetrator, the act is reduced from murder to voluntary manslaughter .
homicide
The manslaughter exists in two flavors; as voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter is the killing of another out of negligence (~ negligence) or as part of a misdemeanor (~ offense).
Battery
means the unlawful use of force against another, resulting in bodily injury or offensive touching.
Assault
Assault in the criminal sense means the intent (intent) a battery to commit or deliberately (intentionally) the reasonable concern in consciousness (at least) to create the victim that a direct assault (bodily harm) is imminent.
False imprisonment
False imprisonment consists of the wrongful confinement (confinement) of a person without their consent effective (consent).
kidnapping
Each taken away (movement) or any hiding (concealment) of the victim of a "secret" place.
Rape
Any penetration of the male sex organ into the female sex organ without the effective consent of the victim (traditionally: outside of marriage, this restriction has been abandoned by most states).
Larceny
The elements of a larceny are removing and carrying away (asportation) of physical personal property (property) of another by trespass with the intention of the other permanent or temporary of his interest (i. E. Not the title as the false pretenses to rob).
Embezzlement
Embezzlement consists of the fraudulent, unlawful possession withdrawal (conversion) of personal property (property) of movables another by a perpetrator, the rightful ownership of this property item (property) holds.
False pretenses
The elements of the false pretenses are of obtaining title to the property (property) of another by intentional (intentionally) misrepresentation of past or present facts with the intent (intent), to cheat the other.
Robbery
Receipt of Stolen Property
Theft
Theft (theft) is not a separate crime. Under this name, the MPC summarizes false pretenses, embezzlement, receipt of stolen goods and larceny .
Burglary
Breaking (breaking) and penetration (entry) of another in the nighttime with intent in the dwelling (intent), there is a crime (felony) to commit.
Arson
Any malicious arson on someone else's home.

Statutory offenses are for example:

See also

literature

Encyclopedias

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bryan A. Garner: Criminal law . In: Black's Law Dictionary . 11th edition. 2019 (English).
  2. ^ A b c d e f Michael N. Giuliano , Mary Babb Morris , Karl Oakes : Criminal Law: Substantive Principles Summary . In: Corpus Juris Secundum . tape 22 (English).