Criminal Law

12th EDITION
Joel Samaha
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
 Chapter One
Criminal Law and Punishment in U.S.
Society: An Overview

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Learning Objectives (slide 1 of 2)
1. To know the dual nature of the social reality of
U.S. criminal law and understand how it reflects
both our criminal law and punishment
imaginations.
2. To understand the differences between criminal
and noncriminal sanctions, and to know the
purposes of each.
3. To understand the various ways to classify
crimes and appreciate the legal and social
ramifications of these labels.
4. To identify, describe, and understand the main
sources of criminal law.
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
 Learning Objectives (slide 2 of 2)
5. To define and understand what behavior
deserves criminal punishment and to
understand the social consequences of the era
of mass imprisonment.
6. To know and understand that the main theories
of criminal punishment center on either
retribution or prevention and to appreciate the
large, complex body of empirical research
supporting each.
7. To understand the text-case method and how to
apply it to the study of criminal law.

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Criminal Law in U.S. Society
(slide 1 of 2)
• The Core Felonies
• Felonies against persons—the core
offenses of murder, manslaughter, rape,
kidnapping, and robbery
• Felonies against property—the core
offenses of felonious theft, robbery, arson,
and burglary

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Criminal Law in U.S. Society
(slide 2 of 2)
• “All the rest” of U.S. Criminal Law: The
Police Power
• History of the Police Power
• Police Power and Public Morals

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Crimes and Noncriminal Legal
Wrongs
CRIMES
Crimes originate from a list of “can’ts” and “musts.”
The list applies to everybody.
Crimes injure another individual and the whole
community.
Criminal prosecutions are brought by the state against
individuals.
Convicted offenders pay money to the state or serve
time in the custody of the state.
Criminal conviction is the condemnation by the whole
community, the expression of its “hatred, fear, or
contempt for the convict.”
The state has to prove all elements of the crime by
“proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Table 1.2 Crimes and Torts: Similarities and Differences
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
TORTS (PRIVATE WRONGS)
Torts originate from a list of “can’ts” and “musts.”
The list applies to everybody.
Torts injure another individual and the whole
community.
Private parties bring tort actions against other parties.
Defendants who lose in tort cases pay money to the
plaintiff who sued.
The tort award compensates the plaintiff who brought
the suit.
The burden on the plaintiff is to prove responsibility
by a preponderance of the evidence.
 Classifying Crimes
• Mala in se – behavior that is inherently
wrong or evil
• Mala prohibita – behaviors that are
criminal only because of statute or
ordinance
• Felonies: crimes punishable by death or
confinement of a year or more and fine
• Misdemeanors: crimes that are
punishable by a fine and or confinement
in local jail (generally up to one year)
Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
 Discussion Activity
Is it a Felony or Misdemeanor? Read the following scenarios and
determine what level of offense was committed.
• A 20 year-old male was sentenced to prison for 15 months. What
level offense did he commit?
• A 36 year-old female was released from jail after serving her entire
280 day sentence. What level offense did she commit?
• A 27 year-old female appeared before the court and was informed if
convicted of the offense she has been charged with, she could serve
no more than 365 days in jail if convicted. What level offense did she
commit?
• A 45 year-old male was released from custody after serving a 48
month sentence. What level offense did he commit?
• A 55 year-old male was ordered to pay a fine of $300.00. If he does
not pay, he will have to serve 90 days in jail. What level offense did
he commit?

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Sources of Criminal Law
• State Criminal Codes
• The Model Penal Code (MPC)
• Municipal Ordinances
• The U.S. Criminal Code
• Administrative Agency Crimes
• Informal Discretionary Law Making

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Discussion Activity
Criminal Offense or Municipal Ordinance? Read the following
scenarios and determine whether the act would be a Criminal Offense
or violation of a Municipal Ordinance.

• A teenage boy was found in the park at 11:15 pm. City curfew is
11:00 pm.
• An elderly woman intentionally exits a retail store pushing a cart
containing shoes, groceries, cleaning supplies and a TV without
paying for the items.
• An adult female is walking down the street with an open container of
alcohol.
• While backing out of a parking spot, an adult male hits and severely
injures the child exiting the vehicle next to him. It was determined
the adult male was under the influence of an illegal substance.

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Criminal Law in the U.S. Federal
System
• 52 Criminal Codes
• 50 states
• Washington, D.C.
• Federal Criminal Law
• Law Making Authority
• States – Broad
• Federal Government – Limited

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Criminal Punishment in U.S. Society
• The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s
population and 25 percent of the world’s
prisoners.
• That makes us the clear leader in world
imprisonment rates.
• The Era of Mass Imprisonment, 1970s–
Present

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Figure 1.2 World Imprisonment Rates, 2009

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Criminal Punishment in U.S. Society
• Punishment
• Intentionally inflicting pain or other unpleasant
consequences on another person
• Defining “Criminal Punishment”
• Penalties that meet four criteria:
1. Inflict pain or other unpleasant consequences
2. Prescribe a punishment in the same law that
defines the crime
3. Administered intentionally
4. Administered by the state

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Theories of Criminal Punishment

Retribution Prevention
Inflicting on offenders Punishment is only a means
physical and psychological to a greater good, usually
pain so that offenders they the prevention or at least
can pay for their crimes the reduction of future crime

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Criticisms of Retribution
• Difficult to translate abstract justice into
concrete penalties
• Retaliation is NOT part of human nature
in civilized society
• Free will justification is undermined
• Vast majority of crimes don’t require
culpability to qualify for criminal
punishment

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Prevention (slide 1 of 6)
• General Deterrence
• Punish the offender to make an example of
them and thereby deter others from
committing future crimes
• Jeremy Bentham–deterrence theory
• Rationalism
• Hedonism

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Prevention (slide 2 of 6)
• Criticisms of Deterrence Theory
• Emotionalism surrounding punishment impairs
objectivity
• Prescribed penalties rest on faith
• Rational free-will that is underlying deterrence
theory does not exist
• Behavior is too unpredictable to reduce to
mechanistic formula
• Threats of punishment don’t affect all crimes or
criminals equally
• Deterrence is unjust because it punishes for sake
of example

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Prevention (slide 3 of 6)
• Incapacitation
• Preventing future crime by making it
physically impossible for the offender to
harm society at large
• Incarceration: locking people up so they cannot
harm society
• Altering surgically (or chemically) an offender to
make them incapable of committing their crime
• Executing a person

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Prevention (slide 4 of 6)
• Criticisms of Incapacitation
• Incarceration shifts criminality from outside
prison to inside prison
• Violent offenders continue offending in
prison, property offenders continue also
• Incarceration is generally temporary

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Prevention (slide 5 of 6)
• Rehabilitation
• Determinism
• Forces beyond offenders’ control cause them to
commit crimes
• No choice made by offender
• Can’t blame offender
• Therapy by experts can change offenders

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Prevention (slide 6 of 6)
• Criticisms of Rehabilitation
• Based on faulty, unproven assumptions
• Causes of crime complex
• Human behavior not well understood
• Sound policy can’t depend on treatment
• Makes no sense to brand everyone who
violates the law as sick and needing
treatment
• Inhumane, cure justifies large “doses” of
pain

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Empirical Evaluation of Criminal Law
Theories
• Very Impressive Body of Research
• Complex
• Important work
• Complexity may reduce amount of
attention by professionals

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 The Text-Case Method (slide 1 of 2)
• Application of principles and definitions of
various crimes throughout the text
• Excerpts are edited versions of appellate
court decisions—not trial transcripts
• Excerpts are not from cases where
defendant was acquitted

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 The Text-Case Method (slide 2 of 2)
• Case Law Terminology
• Trial court
• Not-guilty verdict
• Acquittal
• Conviction

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Discussion Activity
Find a Case at the Supreme Court website
below:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/

Brief the case as a class and discuss the

importance of each section of the case brief.

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 The Text-Case Method (slide 1 of 2)
• The Parts of the Case Excerpts
• Title
• Citation
• Procedural History
• Judge
• Facts
• Judgment/Decision

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 The Text-Case Method (slide 2 of 2)
• The Parts of the Case Excerpts
• Opinion
• Court’s Holding
• Court’s Reasoning
• Majority opinion
• Concurring opinion
• Plurality opinion
• Briefing the Case Excerpts
• Finding Cases

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 Key Cases
• Bond v. U.S. (2014)

Copyright © 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.