Criminal Defense

Crime is on the rise. In such situations, the proper enactment of criminal law is a must. Crimes are offenses against the social order. They bring about disruption in the peace of the sovereign. The agents of such sovereign are the Government officials, who are responsible for maintaining peace and harmony. For this they resort to prosecution of the criminal offenders according to the criminal law in their jurisdiction.

Criminal law is different from civil law, which is mainly concerned with compensation to the individual. Criminal defense law is mainly concerned with deterrence and punishment. The criminal law, surprisingly, occupies a very small portion of the law legal system. Felonies and misdemeanors are the types of cases that fall under the criminal law section. A felony could be an act that leads to more than a year of incarceration like manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, burglary, arson, embezzlement, perjury, conspiracy, solicitation, forgery, assault or murder.

There are two elements that are dealt with under the criminal law. The physical act called ‘actus reus’ and the requisite mental act called ‘mens rea’ with which the act is done – that is, the guilty act and the guilty mind are the two facts laid down to be dealt with. This law is unique because it does not require any victim or any victim’s consent to prosecute the offender.

Criminal law is a system to regulate the behavior of individuals and groups with regard to agreed social norms in society. The different types of criminal law can be laid down as arrests and searches, drug crimes, juvenile law, drunken driving/DUI/DWI, parole, pardons, probations, violent crimes, white collar crimes and military law. There many legal organizations today that provide people with criminal defense advice. This refers to counseling from a criminal defense attorney to help you solve your case.

The justice system in this country will always assume innocence. It is the responsibility of the jury to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty. The criminal prosecution procedure is a very onerous and expensive procedure. This must be the reason why the state provides the guilty with all possible resources to help him prove himself innocent.

The punishments laid down under criminal defense are quite harsh as compared to those under civil law. The judges and juries have a huge responsibility on their shoulders when determining a person’s guilt or innocence and then subjecting them to an appropriate jail time. The consequences that such punishment inflicts on the life of a person can be large. Unlike civil law that inflicts only monetary damages on a person, criminal law can make him lose his time, which he spends in jail. Also the personal trauma and loss of reputation are things that are irreparable. Hence the jury does not consider any person guilty until he or she has been proven guilty without any doubts. They consider them as “innocent until proven guilty”.