Inside Criminal Law

Inside Criminal Law

Matthew Tallungan

University of Phoenix

The two main purposes of criminal law are to act as regulatory devices for society. These devices are needed for both protection and for punishment. According to Criminal Justice in Action: The Core, “criminal law has two basic functions: one relates to the legal requirements of society, and the other pertains to its need to maintain and promote social values”. Many of these laws are split into two categories. One category of criminal law exists to prevent the harm of people and property by individuals. The other exists to protect society as a whole from dangers presented against them without knowledge.

Written sources of criminal law often referred to as substantive criminal law come from a variety of sources. The foremost of these sources is the United States Constitution. Formally referred to as Constitutional Law; it is this source that sets the tone for law within our government, and provides the example for the individual constitutions of all the states in our country. Another source for substantive law is the laws, statutes, or local ordinances passed by federal, state, and local governments known as Statutory Law (Wadsworth, 2006, p. 77-78). In addition to ordinances placed by the aforementioned governments are mandates created by congressionally appointed agencies in order to regulate national standards of tolerance for items like food, drugs, and pollution. This type of regulation is commonly called Administrative Law. The final and most used source of written source of criminal law is case law. Case law is the collection of every court decision made across the country which is transcribed by individual case to be used as a reference for the use of trying a criminal law case, or applying standards of common law. History has established that the use of case law can be very prolific in determining the outcome of a criminal trial. Several instances of case law stand out as having...