Criminal Law

Criminal law

01/10

Duel sovereignty

• Our own laws, police, courts and corrections
• A federal and state system
• No one has too much power
• 10th amendment        

development of an organized and industrial society

• technological advances have directly influenced our lifestyle and standard od living
• 70% of the jobs in the 60s do not exist today
• many social problems developed

Increased mobility

• Has contributed to the deterioration of the American family
• Divorces, moving

Stress of modern industrial society has led to

• Increase alcohol and drug abuse
• Industrial wastes have polluted the air and water
• Reduced the number of low skilled jobs

Finally, which one of man’s social ills causes the most concern to the American citizen

• Crime and delinquency
• Safety and security

Crime

• Remains one of the nations largest problems
• Eisenhower, kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, ford, carter, reasgan, bush, Clinton and Obama have all declared war on crime
• Our tax dollars are spent to control crime
• Over 35 million crimes a year

Criminologist

• Blame society, the environment, family, psychological problems for the crime rate
• Traditional or informal means of social control (family church and schools) are losing their influence as social controllers.
• Maintaining social control

The criminal justice system

• The police, courts, and corrections

The sociology of law

• A person contemplating a career in one of the criminal justice professions needs an adequate and understanding of law and its relation to society.
• Law is nothing more than a language striving for uniformity
• You must also understand the different professions and their duties in the CJS.

Law must be stable and yet flexible so that it may mold into complex problems

• Motor vehicles, wiretapping, right to counsel

Crime defined

• A public wrong
• Wact or omission forbidden by law for which the state prescribes punishment
• Legislatures create laws
• The US has more laws than any other country

General function of laws

• establish order when disputes arise

• no need for law if society could exist without conflict
• prevents revenge or violence

• reaffirms social norms that have been violated

• courts resolve disputes and remind everyone of the norms

• reinforce informal methods of control by further enabling each persona to calculate the consequences of personal actions

• people base their behavior on calculations of reward and punishment
• each law prescribes a penalty
• the effectiveness is limited due to the fact that norms change
• not all people think alike in our diversified country

• Role as an instrument of social change

• Law codifies existing norms, it also modifies behavior
• Remold moral and legal concepts
• Convey emerging attitudes that may change
• Flexible when norms change (Volstead act, drunk driving laws, marijuana)
• During WWI, underlying cause of spousal abuse was alcohol

The rule of law

The rule of law sometimes also referred to as the supremacy of law, involves the belief that an orderly society must be governed by established principle and known codes that are applied uniformly and fairly to all its members.