Justification and Excuse Defense

Purposes of Criminal Law many may wonder what the purpose of Criminal law is. In my opinion, it is to protect the people of society. The main function of Criminal law is to protect citizens from harms to their safety and property and from harms to society’s collective interests (Criminal Justice in Action, 2006). That basically means that the criminal law protects people from the harms of murder, theft or arson. It also protects the society interests collectively. It is a criminal law polluting the environment and also bad consumer products that are not safe. The second function of Criminal law protects the values of Citizens in the society. An example of protecting the values of citizens is to arrest prostitutes and drug dealers. They are not hurting anyone because the other party me be in content with the act, but in reality someone will be hurt.

The written sources of American criminal law, provides people with the illegal acts and the process in which the defendant will have to go through to prove they are innocent or guilty. The United States Constitution, Statutes of laws by Congress and state legislatures, regulations created by regulatory agencies, and Case Law are sources of American criminal laws. These sources are so that citizens know the process and know the government powers and limits. They make sure everyone gets trialed fairly to establish the innocence of the defendant. The Constitutional laws were taken from the United States Constitution meaning that anything that does not agree with the Constitution laws it is considered unconstitutional.

Criminal responsibility may be limited because the law does recognize that a person needs to meet certain mental conditions to be held responsible for the crime committed. Those conditions can vary from an insanity defense where the certain tests are formed to determine the defendant’s mental status at the time the crime was committed. Justification and excuses as to why a crime was...