Summary of Criminal Law

Crime. What it is? Crimes we can describe as acts which by the law are wrong and can be punished by the state. One act can be crime in one country but not in another. On the other hand, every intellectual person should know what is illegal and what he can not do. It depends from country how you will be punished for each crime.

In all civilized countries a person can not be named offender if his guilty is not proved. The state should prove person’s guilty by high standards and each crime has precise elements which must be proven. What is more, there are two important elements to a crime: Actus Reus and Mens Rea. First means the criminal act itself and other the criminal state of minds of person who committed a crime. However, sometimes there is different definition of mens rea in different cases. For example, in cases of murder a person can be find guilty without intention do that but sometimes it is enough to be negligent or careless and you will be guilty. The rest of the murder definition refers to the actus reus. For example, a person will be not guilty if he killed somebody when he was a soldier in a time of war. Eventually, the state should find out a substantial cause of result of crime and only then pronounce a sentence.

Another one very important thing is a defense. Sometimes a person can be found not guilty if he has a defense – a reason why his act should be excused. There are some kinds of defense. For example, the defense of duress – when person was forced to commit a crime because of threats that he or his family members will be harmed. Another defense is that of insanity – person is not responsible for his actions because of mental illness. Sometimes person can be not guilty for his actions because of his intoxication or self-defense. But there are very high standards to prove that. However, a defense is not the same as mitigation.

Summing it up, a number of crimes is increasing very rapidly in many countries, so we should do all we can do the best to stop that.