Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Outline what the difference is between civil law and criminal law
Outline what the difference is between civil law and criminal law
Burden of proof criminal cases
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Criminal law vs. Civil litigation The law is used to safeguard the lives, freedoms, rights, and property of the citizens (Nonet 34). There are two major bodies of law: criminal law and civil law. Criminal law is a set of rules and statutes that identifies behavior forbidden by the government as it threatens and harms public safety and interests and that determines punishment to be imposed for the commission of search act.
The main purpose of criminal law is to punish the person who perpetrated the crime, for the purpose of passing on a message to the person and the society at large, not to commit the crime; otherwise, they will get punished for committing the act (Schmalleger 85). When a person commits an act that is prohibited by the law he or she risks being prosecuted. In criminal law, the complaint on the crime is first registered with the police, after which the police carry out an
…show more content…
In criminal law, if the individual is found guilty of committing a crime, he or she is punished by confinement in prison, a fine, and even a death penalty in some occasions. In contrary, in civil law the losing party is forced to compensate the plaintiff the extent of the loss which is normally determined by the judge and is referred to as punitive damage (Chase 124). A criminal litigation is much more serious compared to a civil litigation, thus the criminal defendants are given more rights and protection than the civil defendants.
The third difference is in the burdens of proof. A burden of proof refers to the obligation the initiating party must fulfill in substantiating his or her case (Walton 15). In criminal case, the burden of proof lies within the government so as to substantiate that the defendant is guilty. In contrast, in criminal case, the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff in order to prove that the defendant is guilty. The defendant then refutes the evidence that the plaintiff brings before the
Criminal law attempts to balance the rights of individuals to freedom from interference with person or property, and society’s need for order. Procedural matters, the rights of citizens and powers of the state, specific offences and defences, and punishment and compensation are some of the ways society and the criminal justice system interact.
In any legal proceedings, whether adversarial or inquisitorial, witnesses must be called upon to prove the existence or non-existence of each parties’ assertions. There are two kinds of legal proceeding that can be instituted in a court of law; these are the criminal case which involved the state against an accused person and the civil case which a an individual sues another individual to recover damages, compensation, enforcement, restitution e.tc.
In this essay, I will be examining how the court system can fail to deliver justice for particular cases and people’s circumstances, as well as looking at alternatives to court, like circle sentencing, restorative sentencing and alternatives for children to the formal court system, as outlined in the Young Offenders Act 1997 (NSW). Crime is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. On the other side of this is justice; the quality of being fair and reasonable.
“ Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime.” (Wikipedia, 2014) This law encompasses several different aspects of our government and the ways used to regulate them. Maintaining the peace and order of the public is one aspect. Law enforcement officers also try to keep good conduct of the public. Anyone who places the safety of the public in jeopardy, is in violation of this law. Punishment is used in a variety of ways to discipline any person who breaks these laws. There are four main sources used in today’s criminal law:
In every society around the world, the law is affecting everyone since it shapes the behavior and sense of right and wrong for every citizen in society. Laws are meant to control a society’s behavior by outlining the accepted forms of conduct. The law is designed as a neutral aspect existent to solve society’s problems, a system specially designed to provide people with peace and order. The legal system runs more efficiently when people understand the laws they are intended to follow along with their legal rights and responsibilities.
There are multiple crime television shows that are based on a true story or fiction. A well known television show is Law and Order Special Victims Unit, which deals with rape and assault cases. This particular episode deals with a domestic violence case between a retired football star, AJ Martin, and his girlfriend, Paula Bryant. I will be using the National Crime Victimization Survey, which is an interview with the members in a household about reported and unreported crime that occurred within the last six months. “NVCS provides information of characteristics of victims, including age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status and household income” (Truman and Morgan). Official statistics like the NCVS would be used for comparing its demographics
A criminal is obviously an individual who commits a crime, but what is crime? A crime is any act or omission of an act in violation of a public law. Though most laws are common throughout America, some laws are also established by local and state governments as well. Criminal laws and penalties vary from state to state. Crimes include both felonies and misdemeanors. Felonies are serious crimes like murder or rape and are punishable by imprisonment for a year or more. The consequence for felonies such as murder and treason can be the death penalty. Misdemeanors are less serious crimes like petty theft or speeding and are punishable by less than a year in prison. Fines are also punishments of both misdemeanors and felonies. The fine’s amount is determined by the seriousness of the case. However, no act is a crime unless it has been stated as such by an American law or statute.
In all Australian legal jurisdictions, children under the age of ten are considered to be too young to have criminal intent. That means, that children under this age cannot be held legally responsible for their actions. Australia is the only region in the world to have uniform legal guidelines on the lower age limit of criminal responsibility. (Weijers, Grisso 2009 p.45). Having the presumption that children under the age of ten are unable to know the law completely, therefore not being able to have mens rea, is in my opinion, necessary in our criminal courts. This essay will look at the reasons for the necessary use of the minimum age of criminal responsibility, such as the Beijing rules, the convention
The rule of law, simply put, is a principle that no one is above the law. This means that there should be no leniency for a person because of peerage, sex, religion or financial standing. England and Wales do not have a written constitution therefore the Rule of Law, which along with the parliamentary Sovereignty was regarded by legal analyst A.C Dicey, as the pillars of the UK Constitution. The Rule of Law was said to be adopted as the “unwritten constitution of Great Britain”.
One way of looking at criminal law is that it is dealing with something of public awareness. For instance, the public has awareness. in seeing that people are protected from being robbed or assaulted. These are legal problems that fall into the criminal law. Criminal law involves punishing and rehabilitating offenders, and.
The economic theory of criminal law provides us with a predictive model of criminal behavior. The first question which comes into our minds what is the need of criminal law in a society is civil law not enough to deal with the crimes.
Criminal and Civil Law – Criminal law is the law through which public commitment of crimes are prosecuted by governing bodies, whereas civil law is the law through which private parties may bring lawsuits against one another for real or imagined wrongdoings. E.g. criminal law would deal with the prosecution of a crime such as one person hitting another with their car, and civil law would deal with the lawsuit, as the person hit would sue the driver of the car for monetary compensation.
Laws serve several purposes in the criminal justice system. The main purpose of criminal law is to protect, serve, and limit human actions and to help guide human conduct. Also, laws provide penalties and punishment against those who are guilty of committing crimes against property or persons. In the modern world, there are three choices in dealing with criminals’ namely criminal punishment, private action and executive control. Although both private action and executive control are advantageous in terms of costs and speed, they present big dangers that discourage their use unless in exceptional situations. The second purpose of criminal law is to punish the offender. Punishing the offender is the most important purpose of criminal law since by doing so; it discourages him from committing crime again while making him or her pay for their crimes. Retribution does not mean inflicting physical punishment by incarceration only, but it also may include things like rehabilitation and financial retribution among other things. The last purpose of criminal law is to protect the community from criminals. Criminal law acts as the means through which the society protects itself from those who are harmful or dangerous to it. This is achieved through sentences meant to act as a way of deterring the offender from repeating the same crime in the future.
punishment to be done to whoever did the crime. If the criminal doesn't get the kind of
According to David Garland, punishment is a legal process where violators of the criminal law are condemned and sanctioned with specified legal categories and procedures (Garland, 1990). There are different forms and types of punishment administered for various reasons and can either be a temporary or lifelong type of punishment. Punishment can be originated as a cause from parents or teachers with misbehaving children, in the workplace or from the judicial system in which crimes are committed against the law. The main aim of punishment is to demonstrate to the public, the victim and the offender that justice is to be done, to reduce criminal activities and to deter people from wanting to commit any form of crime against the law. In other words it is a tool used to eliminate the bad in society or to deter people from committing criminal activities.