Criminal Law Essay

In this chapter, it goes over many different types of law such as civil law, administrative law, case law, criminal law, etc. I am going to focus on the essence of the concept of crime within the variations of law. Although many focus on the main three principles of crime which are the criminal act, mental state and a combination of both, there are five others that have equal importance. Those five are labeled as causation, resulting harm, principles of legality, principles of punishment, and necessary attendant circumstances.

The criminal act, also known as actus reus, means “an act in violation of the law, a guilty act”. There are many different versions of violations that may occur in result of a crime. The categories are felonies, misdemeanors, offenses, treason and espionage, and inchoate offenses. All of which hold different punishments as consequences based on the severity of the crime committed.

Mens Rea, (second general component of crime, pg 124) the state of mind that accompanies a criminal act, is also thought of as a guilty mind. To find out whether or not a person’s state of mind during a criminal act was intentional or unintentional, one would have to observe the four levels that can distinguish mens rea. This consists of purposeful, knowing, reckless, and negligent. Were they intentionally trying to commit the crime knowing the consequences? Knowing causes awareness which proclaims that a person should know whether what they are about to do is right or wrong. If a person does not see the difference, they could possibly be considered legally insane.

A combination of both Actus Reus and Mens Rea can result in a very deadly outcome in which the punishment may not be held under normal circumstances. In example, Jeffr...

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...d that a crime did not occur.

Finally, we are supposed to point out something that we did not agree with. The author of this chapter stated facts about our court system and the steps needed to be taken in order to capture, convict, and prosecute a criminal. The stories such as the sacrificial exercises of a church in Miami about thirty years ago were amazing examples of proper ways the court has to abide by. Although people were against chickens being tossed aside under trees, the Supreme Court noticed that when stating that they could not partake in these events it became a discrimination against their religion. All steps were taken that he previously pointed out in the chapter in order to handle this case. The main aspect is that there are multiple principles of crime but they mainly wrap around the importance of actus reus, mens rea or a combination of both.