According to Black’s Law Dictionary, Criminal law is “the body of law defining offenses against

the community at large, regulating how suspects are investigated, charged, and tried, and
establishing punishments for convicted offenders.”
ORIGIN AND PURPOSE
The earliest known use of the term in English dates back to the 18th century. It’s also termed
penal law (sheria ya adhabu) and deals with wrongdoings that are a threat to all of society,
such as rape, murder, and other such heinous offenses.
The penal act might be against one single victim. However, it is a threat to society at large
which is why criminal cases are considered offenses against the “state” or the jurisdiction of the
prosecution (mashtaka). It comprises the laws and regulations defining criminal offenses and
the punishments imposed on those found guilty (hatia)
THE FUNDAMENTAL GOAL OF CRIMINAL LAW (Lengo kuu la sheria ya jinai)
i. Is public safety; it aims to deter destructive or hazardous behaviors.
ni usalama wa umma; inalenga kuzuia tabia haribifu au hatari.
ii. It also establishes the standards of behavior expected of citizens and the punishments
for failing to meet those norms.
Pia inaweka viwango vya tabia vinavyotarajiwa kwa raia na adhabu kwa kushindwa
kukidhi kanuni hizo
iii. On the other hand, the right to a fair trial, access to legal representation, and a sentence
in line with the severity of the crime are all part of these guiding principles of criminal
law.
Kwa upande mwingine, haki ya kusikilizwa kwa haki, kupata uwakilishi wa kisheria, na
hukumu inayolingana na uzito wa uhalifu ni sehemu ya kanuni hizi elekezi za sheria ya
jinai.
TYPES OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR
The criminal justice system in the United States punishes a wide range of behavior deemed
detrimental to public order. These offenses are categorized based on their nature, severity, and
statutory definitions.
The following are examples of different classifications of criminal behavior documented in the
United States:
Felony
Anyone convicted of a felony faces a prison sentence of more than one year. This encompasses
more serious offenses like murder and manslaughter, and other offenses such as robbery,
arson, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and fraud. The penalties for felonies are much harsher than
those for misdemeanors.
Misdemeanors
Misdemeanors are less serious offenses when compared to felonies. Fines, probation, forced
community service, and/or up to a year in jail are frequent penalties for such breaches.
Misdemeanors are more serious offenses than traffic violations but less serious than felonies.
Minor crimes
Minor crimes are often known as infractions or ordinance violations. They are typically
penalized with monetary penalties. Driving and parking violations, petty drug possession,
littering, and causing a public nuisance are all examples of such transgressions.
Drug possession
Distribution, manufacturing, and sale of prohibited substances are all significant offenses. Drug
possession can range from a minor misdemeanor to a huge, organized drug cartel. The kind and
quantity of drugs involved determines how severe the punishment for a drug crime will be.
Sexual crimes
This category includes sexual exploitation, prostitution, and related offenses, such as rape,
sexual assault, child molestation, child pornography, and similar acts.
Domestic violence
The term “domestic violence” refers to any form of abuse done within the context of a
domestic or family relationship, whether physical, emotional, or sexual.
Sources of criminal law
Statutory laws
Statutory law is made up of written laws enacted by federal, state, and local legislative bodies.
These statutes or ordinances define specific criminal offenses, their elements, and the penalties
associated with them.
Case laws
Case law, also known as common law, refers to the legal principles and rules developed by
courts by interpreting statutes and applying legal precedents. Appellate court decisions,
especially those from higher courts, establish legal precedents that subordinate courts are
required to observe.
Constitutional laws
Constitutional law refers to the stipulations and guiding principles detailed in the United States
Constitution. It consists of fundamental rights and protections applicable to criminal law, such
as the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and the
Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination.
What are the elements of criminal law?
The prosecution has the burden of proof in a criminal case. They must prove beyond a
reasonable doubt that all the elements of the crime were present, which are as follows:
1. Actus Reus: The physical act or conduct that makes up the offense. The prosecution
must demonstrate that the accused engaged in voluntary and intentional actions or
omissions that violated the law.
2. Mens Rea: The burden of proof rests with the prosecution. They must show that the
accused has the requisite mental state (intent, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence)
to commit the crime at issue.
3. Concurrence: The necessity of the simultaneous occurrence of an action and its
intended result.
4. Causation: A defendant’s actions must be shown to have caused the harm or
consequences in question.
In United States v. Davis, the Supreme Court clarified the definition of “crime of violence” as
used in Title 18, Section 924(c).
The Court held that a “crime of violence” must have as an element the use, attempted use, or
threatened use of physical force against another person or property. The Court rejected the
“residual clause” approach, which allowed for a broader interpretation of what constitutes a
“crime of violence.”
This ruling narrowed the scope of offenses that qualify as “crimes of violence” under Section
924(c). It provided a clearer standard for determining the applicability of enhanced penalties
for certain offenses.
Rights of the accused
To ensure that the system is fair and to protect against possible abuses, the US Constitution
grants certain rights to people involved in the criminal justice system. Here are some of those
rights:
Equal treatment and protection
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee everyone’s right to equal treatment,
information about the charges brought against them, and protection from having to testify
against themselves in court.
Representation
The Sixth Amendment guarantees all citizens the right to obtain legal representation and
provides counsel to those who cannot otherwise afford it.
Trial by impartial jury
The Sixth Amendment guarantees everyone the right to a prompt trial by an impartial jury
Other protections
The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from arbitrary government intrusion and requires
probable cause before issuing a search warrant.
Components of criminal law
1. Crimes are actions or inactions that break the law and bear criminal punishment.
2. Those accused of a crime have the right to utilize legal arguments to defend themselves.
Self-defense, mental illness, poverty, pressure, and aimlessness are common defenses.
3. Police investigate criminal conduct, collect evidence, and present their findings to
prosecutors. The state or government (the prosecutor) then decides whether to file
charges.
4. In a criminal trial, both parties present evidence, question witnesses, cross-examine
them, and make arguments. A judge or jury examines the evidence and decides whether
the defendant is guilty or innocent.
5. If the defendant is found guilty, the court will impose a sentence that takes the gravity
of the offense, mitigating or aggravating circumstances into consideration. Penalties can
include time in prison, monetary fines, community service, or a combination.
Types of punishment
Retribution
There must be retribution for wrongdoers. This is the most common and universal expectation.
Because criminals have harmed others unfairly by taking advantage of them, the law penalizes
them to “balance the scales.” So the severity of the punishment is proportionate to the
seriousness of the crime.
Individualized deterrence focuses on the convicted criminal. The goal is to impose a severe
enough punishment to deter future criminal activity.
Societal deterrence is the goal of general deterrence. Others are deterred from breaking the
law when those who break it face consequences.
Incarceration
Incarceration is a form of punishment with one simple goal: to keep criminals away from the
public.
This is often done through prison terms.. Both the death penalty and exile have accomplished
the same goals.
Rehabilitation
The purpose of rehabilitation is to return a former criminal to a productive society. Its primary
purpose is to deter the offender from committing further offenses by making them see the
error of their ways.
Restoration
In the theory of restoration, the focus is on the victim rather than the offender. The point is to
have the state fix whatever damage the offender did to the victim.
For instance, a person who embezzles must pay back the money they stole. Restoring the victim
to their pre-injury status is a common goal shared with other branches of criminal justice and is
closely related to ideas in civil law

A criminal offence, also known as a crime, is an act or omission that violates the law and is
punishable by the state, often involving harm to individuals, the community, or the state itself.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
 Definition:
A criminal offence is a violation of a law that is considered a crime against the state.
 Harm:
These offences are typically considered harmful to individuals, the community, or the
state.
 Punishment:
Criminal offences are punishable by law, which can include fines, imprisonment,
community service, or other penalties.
 Examples:
Some examples of criminal offences include theft, violence, drug offenses, and property
damage.
 Types of crimes:
Criminal offences can be classified as summary offences, indictable offences, minor
offences, serious offences, or arrest able offences.
 Legal Process:
The way a criminal offence is investigated and prosecuted depends on the type of
crime.
In legal contexts, a suspected person is someone believed to have committed a crime, while
guilty signifies that a person has been officially found responsible for breaking the law.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
 Suspect:
 A suspect is an individual who is believed to have committed a crime, but who
has not yet been formally charged or proven guilty.
 The term "suspect" indicates a degree of suspicion or belief that a person may be
involved in a crime, but it does not mean that they have been proven guilty.
 A suspect might be apprehended and later identified as a defendant if formal
charges are brought against them.
 Guilty:
 "Guilty" means that a person has been officially found responsible for
committing a crime.
 In legal terms, guilt is established through a court of law after a trial or a plea of
guilty.
 A person is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
 Once found guilty, a person is considered an offender.
 Commonly Used Terms
Beyond reasonable doubt. The test (or standard of proof) used by a jury, judge or
magistrate to decide if the accused or defendant...

Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

 SUSPECT | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
Suspect noun [C] (GUILTY PERSON) a person who is believed to be guilty of something:
After the robbery, the usual suspects were ro...

Cambridge Dictionary
 suspect | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
A suspect is a person who is believed to have committed a crime , but has not yet been
found guilty. If a suspect received an arre...

Legal Information Institute

 Show all
GENERATIVE AI IS EXPERIMENTAL.
The Indian Penal Code (IPC) classifies crimes based on the nature of the offense, including
against the state, human body, property, marriage, and public tranquility, with specific sections
outlining each category and its associated punishments.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
I. General Classification:
 Offences Against the State:
These involve acts that threaten the stability or security of the state, such as treason, sedition,
and rebellion.
 Examples: Sections 121, 121A, 122, 123, 124A, 153A, and 153B of the IPC.
 Offences Against Human Body:
These involve crimes that cause harm or injury to individuals, including murder, culpable
homicide, assault, and kidnapping.
 Examples: Sections 300-302 (Murder), 304 (Culpable Homicide), 328 (Grievous
Hurt), 350 (Criminal Force), 359-361 (Kidnapping).
 Offences Against Property:
These involve crimes that target or damage property, including theft, robbery, dacoity, and
criminal misappropriation.
 Examples: Sections 378-382 (Theft), 390-402 (Robbery and Dacoity), 403-409
(Criminal Misappropriation and Criminal Breach of Trust).
 Offences Against Marriage:
These involve crimes related to marriage, such as bigamy, adultery, and cruelty.
 Examples: Sections 493-498 (Offences Relating to Marriage), 498A (Cruelty by
Husband or Relatives of Husband).
 Offences Against Public Tranquility:
These involve crimes that disrupt public peace, order, and tranquility, such as rioting, unlawful
assembly, and defamation.
 Examples: Sections 141-153A (Crimes against Public Tranquility).
II. Specific Offences and Sections:
 Theft: Sections 378 to 382
 Extortion: Sections 383 to 389
 Robbery and Dacoity: Sections 390 to 402
 Criminal Misappropriation of Property: Sections 403 to 404
 Criminal Breach of Trust: Sections 405 to 409
  Receiving Stolen Property: Sections 410 to 414
 Cheating: Sections 415 to 420
 Arson: Section 436 (destruction of property by fire or explosive)
 Burglary: Section 457 (entering a building with intent to commit an offense)
 Assault and Criminal Force: Sections 350-355 (assault or criminal force with intent to
dishonor)
 Kidnapping: Sections 359-361 (kidnapping from lawful guardianship)
 Murder: Sections 300-302
 Culpable Homicide: Sections 304
 Attempt to Murder: Section 307
THE FUNCTION OF THE CRIMINAL LAW

The function of the criminal law is largely to set the parameters within which the criminal
justice system operates. There are two aspects to this. Firstly, the criminal justice system is a
tool of social control representing the agglomeration of powers, procedures and sanctions
which surround the criminal law.

The police are empowered to investigate crime, search for evidence, arrest suspected offenders
and question them. The courts are empowered to try persons charged with committing crimes
and, if convicted, to sentence them. In setting the parameters within which this coercive State
apparatus operates, the criminal law plays a central role; a person may only be arrested where
he is suspected of committing a crime; the police may only search for evidence which points
towards the commission of a crime; the courts may only try and sentence persons who are
charged with, and then convicted of, committing crimes.
It is crucial, therefore to define clearly what acts, omissions or states of affairs amount to
crimes as all the other powers, procedures and sanctions of the criminal justice system are
dependent upon these definitions. The criminal law, accordingly, limits and controls the
legitimate exercise by the State of its coercive power to investigate crime and prosecute,
convict and punish criminals. Secondly, the criminal law operates as a guide to the citizen
indicating the limits of legitimate activity -on his part and predicting the consequences of
infraction of the criminal law.

If the power of the State is to be effectively limited and if the citizen is to be able confidently to
make rational choices regarding his behaviour, the criminal law must be clear, relatively stable
and accessible, that is, knowable in advance.

Throughout the course of this book judicial decisions on the content and ambit of the
substantive criminal law will be subjected to criticism, sometimes trenchant criticism, as there is
a tendency for judges to lose sight of the wider role which the criminal law serves in their
understandable desire to see persons whom they regard as 'undersirable characters' locked
behind bars.

The criminal law is a series of prohibitions backed up with the threat of punishment. An
understanding of the function of the criminal law requires further inquiry into the reasons why
breaches of the criminal law are met with punishment and why certain behaviour is subjected
to prohibition.

Social control and social morality

The criminal law represents the rules of social control within a society. But how are the rules
determined? Is there an essential criterion which determines which behaviour merits criminal
sanction? The Wolfenden Committee, Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and
Prostitution (1957), stated (at paras. 13 and 14) that the function of the criminal law is:1. to
preserve public order and decency, 2. to protect the citizen from what is ' offensive or injurious
and 3. to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation or corruption of others, particularly
those who are specially vulnerable because they are young, weak in body or mind or
inexperienced or in a state of special physical, official or economic dependence. It is not... the
function of the law to intervene in the private lives of citizens, or 4. to seek to enforce any
particular pattern of behaviour, further than is necessary to carry out the purposes we have
outlined.

To this extent the criminal law is a reflection of corporate or societal morality. The wrong-doing
which the criminal law seeks to punish is that which threatens the fundamental values upon
which a society is founded. While it is harmful to the individual to be robbed or assaulted, it is
also harmful to society as such behaviour threatens the security and well-being of that society.
The criminal sanction operates then as a form of social control both punishing the offender and
re-asserting the mores of that society.

Retribution

A major purpose which punishment serves is retribution. Punishment is meted out to the
offender because this is what he deserves in response to his infraction of the criminal law. This
was expressed by Stephen, A History of the Criminal Law(1883)at pp. 81-82: the infliction of
punishment by law gives definite expression and a solemn ratification and justification to the
hatred which is excited by the commission of the offence, and which constitutes the moral or
popular as distinguished from the conscientious sanction of that part of morality which is also
sanctioned by the criminal law. The criminal law thus proceeds upon the principle that it is
morally right to hate criminals, and it confirms and justifies that sentiment by inflicting upon
criminals, punishments which express it. To some extent, therefore, retribution reflects
society's desire for vengeance. When people join together in a society governed by law, they
relinquish their own right to retaliate to harm done to them in exchange for the protection
which the law offers them. H. Gross gives expression to this view in A Theory of Criminal Justice
(1979) (at pp. 19-20): But society requires that this right [to repay harm with harm] be
surrendered by its members, and in exchange undertakes to protect them by laws that can be
effective only if violations are punished. The bargain that is struck, then, places a moral
obligation on society to punish crime as it places a moral obligation on its members to refrain
from breaking the law.

Vengeance or retaliation is only one aspect of retribution. A further element is that of

denunciation. The infliction of punishment signals society's disapproval of the criminal's
conduct and reaffirms the values the criminal law is designed to uphold. This reflects the more
modem view of the appropriate place for retribution in the criminal justice system. In Sargeant
(1974), a case concerning violent crime, Lavvton LJ, after rejecting the idea of'an eye for an eye',
gave expression to this view (at p. 77): society, through the courts, must show its abhorrence of
particular types of crime, and the only way in which the courts can show this is by the
sentences they pass.

The courts do not have to reflect public opinion. On the other hand they must not disregard it.
Perhaps the main duty of the court is to lead public opinion. Anyone who surveys the criminal
scene at the present time must be alive to the appalling problem of violence. Society, we are
satisfied, expects the courts to deal with violence... Those who indulge in the kind of violence
with which we are concerned in this case must expect custodial sentences.
The punishment inflicted, however,.must not represent a blind act of vindictive retaliation; it
must be both reasoned and reasonable. The idea which has gained ascendancy in recent years
is that of 'just deserts' based on the philosophical ideas of Kant.

A person who commits a crime has gained an 'unfair advantage over the other members of
society. Punishment cancels out that advantage (particularly where the court orders
confiscation, restitution or compensation) while, at the same time, it re-affirms the values of
that society by visiting moral disapproval or reprobation on the offender. The punishment the
criminal deserves, of course, must bear some relationship to the harm he has caused.
Punishment can only be considered reasonable where the courts respect the concept of
proportionality.

Deterrence

A second purpose which punishment may serve is that of deterrence, whether this be
particular deterrence (i.e. dissuading the individual criminal from re-offending in the future)
�n general deterrence (i.e. dissuading other possible offenders from offending by the example
made of each particular offender). It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of individual
deterrence.

Some offenders may never offend again even if they are not caught or punished; others may
only be deterred where the punishment imposed is so severe that it is out of all proportion to
the gravity of the wrongdoing. In relation to general deterrence, courts, in the past, sometimes
imposed exemplary sentences to deter others where an offence had become prevalent or was
particularly grave. While judges may have associated severe sentences with deterrence, the
connection was not necessarily valid. In The Sentence of the Court (5th edn, 1990) published by
the Home Office, it is stated (at para. 3.3):
The simplest way of evaluating the individual deterrent effect of sentencing is to compare the
proportions, of offenders undergoing different types of sentence who, when free to do so,
continue to commit offences. The almost invariable conclusion of the large amount of research
which has been undertaken... is that it is hard to show any effect that one type of sentence is
more likely than any other to reduce the likelihood of reoffending, which is high for all.
Similarly, longer periods of custody or particular institutional regimes do not seem to have a
significant effect. Studies comparing the reconviction rates of offenders given community
service orders with those given custodial sentences have also shown little difference.

Different sentences therefore have little effect in deterring offenders. The Sentence of the
Court goes on to state, however, (at para. 3.4.) that: The inference most commonly drawn from
research studies is that the probability of arrest and conviction is likely to deter potential
offenders whereas the perceived severity of the ensuing penalties has little effect. Of course,
detection and conviction must result in punishment if the rules are not to lose their coercive
force.

Thus, the deterrent role of the criminal process is a limited one; those who are set on
committing crime may not be deterred by the criminal law. For most members of society,
however, the criminal law may serve to educate them on acceptable and unacceptable conduct
creating thereby unconscious inhibitions against offending.