SEATWORK

A. What is crime?
- crime, the intentional commission of an act usually deemed socially harmful or
dangerous and specifically defined, prohibited, and punishable under criminal law.

What is causation?
- causation provides a means of connecting conduct with a resulting effect, typically an
injury. In criminal law, it is defined as the actus reus (an action) from which the
specific injury or other effect arose and is combined with mens rea (a state of mind)
to comprise the elements of guilt.

What is criminal Law?

- Criminal law, as distinguished from civil law, is a system of laws concerned with
punishment of individuals who commit crimes. Thus, where in a civil case two
individuals dispute their rights, a criminal prosecution involves the government
deciding whether to punish an individual for either an act or an omission.

What is criminal?
- Criminal is a popular term used for a person who has committed a crime or has been
legally convicted of a crime. Criminal also means being connected with a crime.
When certain acts or people are involved in or related to a crime, they are termed as
criminal.

What is law?
- Law is a system of rules created and enforced through social or governmental
institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding
debate. 

What is felony?
- Felonies are the most serious class of criminal offense. They are generally defined as
crimes punishable by imprisonment of more than one year, and the prison sentences
are usually served in a federal or state penitentiary rather than a county jail. Some
examples of felonies include murder, rape, burglary, kidnapping and arson.
 What is offense?
- Offense is a legal term used to refer to conducts or omissions that violate and are
punishable under criminal law. The terms offense, criminal offense, and crime are
often used as interchangeable synonyms. The term offense may be frequently used to
describe a minor crime. 

What is ordinance?
- a law or rule made by a government or authority:

What mala in SE? Mala prohibita?

- mala prohibita are acts and omissions which are made crimes because special statutes
criminalize it.
- Mala in se, on the other hand, are acts and omissions which are inherently wrongful
and immoral regardless of regulations governing their conduct.
- In mala in se, intent to commit the crime is an element thereof. The criminal intent
must unite with the unlawful act for it to constitute as felony.
- In mala prohibita, criminal intent is not an essential element of the offense. It is
enough that an act or omission has violated a special statute prohibiting such act or
omission.

Social Disorganization theory

- The theory of social disorganization states a person’s physical and social
environments are primarily responsible for the behavioral choices that a person
makes. At the core of social disorganization theory, is that location matters when it
comes to predicting illegal activity. Social disorganization is a theoretical perspective
that explains ecological differences in levels of crime based on structural and cultural
factors shaping the nature of the social order across communities. 
Social disorganization theory has played a central role in illuminating the
neighborhood structures and processes that influence crime and disorder. It has also
informed community crime prevention programs and initiatives concerned with the
social organization of urban neighborhoods.