Role of Criminal Law Essay Example

American colonies. The major component of the common law is the law of precedent. One decision made by a court is always abided to the actions of the other courts. This is because the legal system serves all the courts. Stare decisis principle relates to precedent law. It means to let the precedent or decision stand. The policy acts as a guideline to courts in producing decisions for the similar cases. This fosters fairness in the judicial process.

2.Constitutions
The criminal law is clearly stipulated in Article IV of the U.S constitution. It asserts that “this constitution…shall be the supreme legislation of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.” The U.S Supreme Court strikes down any other types of legislation that conflict with the constitution. It is always considered unconstitutional to conflict with the supreme laws. All the local laws are subordinate to state laws defined in the state’s constitution.

3.Statutes and Ordinances
Congress laws and state legislatures constitute most of the criminal law. Some laws are passed by the city councils that create part of the criminal law. In U.S each state has a statutory criminal code. The federal government has the statutory criminal law. Laws defining crimes such as larceny, burglary, rape, homicide, and robbery are statutory. There exist correlation and overlap between state and federal statutes; for instance, all the federal drug laws supplement the state laws.

4.Administrative rules with criminal penalties
U.S regulatory commissions and agencies generate rules that are both semi-judicial and semi-legislative in nature (Robinson et al, 2014). The governmental organizations such as internal revenue services (IRS)

create such laws. The agencies investigate violations, formulate rules and impose sanctions. The agencies put into practice the rules relating to a variety of crimes. These include income tax evasion, securities fraud, dumping toxic waste and selling contaminated food. The regulatory agencies foster good implementation of the criminal laws in the states. The agencies administer justice to minor criminal offenses and define the correct sanction for each case.

5.Appellate court decisions
The appellate courts state the legal notions have law status to become a case law; For instance the U.S supreme court. The court of appeal interprets the statutory law and court decisions where rules have not yet been codified in the respective statutes. The federal laws ensure that criminal laws are well codified in the statutory law. The body ensures that legal opinions are passed to become state criminals. In U.S.A, the supreme paper is responsible for administering judicial services on major criminal cases.

How laws are defined

The legislature board in the USA has the power to define crimes and stipulate the specific punishments (Reichel, 2012). This applies to all U.S.A states and territories. The federal constitution constraints this power in the states. For instance, the fourteenth prohibition and amendment restrict acts of attainder. The state law has the mandate to limit state legislative action. The courts ascertain the legislative powers of the state. The administrative rules entail force of law. Violation of state laws is very punishable. A common law crime shall be liable to the common law. In U.S jurisdiction, criminal statutes have been enacted. The common law that is related to criminal procedure and crimes is highly recognized in the courts. The law has

been repealed impliedly by the statute.

The state, therefore, has the mandate to prosecute crimes that were not processed at the common law level. The law determines whether the offense is legal or illegal and whether the offense is punishable or abolished (Bassiouni, 2011). The statute entirely controls the criminal procedure. The U.S citizen has the mandate to avoid law conflicting offenses. A convict may be subject to punishment for the crime if the penalty is authorized by Congress. In U.S crimes are defined in a penal statute. However, Crimes in the U.S constitution must be clear. A crime must be evaluated using the law act and criminal intent.

Functions of criminal laws

Maintaining order; the criminal law provides predictability (Wootton, 2013). The law informs the people what to expect from others. The law aims at keeping every civilian informed and abides by the law. Through this, uncertainty and chaos are reduced. Protecting individuals and property; the law protects civilians from criminals who would inflict physical harm on them. The law protects the citizens from people who may take away their worldly goods. The law aims at punishing those who steal. Resolving disputes; the law aims at resolving conflicts between citizens as well as disputes. The law provides an orderly way, a peaceful way to handle grievances by the civilians. Safeguarding civil liberties; the criminal law works to safeguard the individual rights. It ensures that personal rights and freedom are observed and respected. The law guarantees that a citizen is not deprived off his/her rights.

Impact of society on criminal law

Society entails some risks and challenges that demand solution from right solutions. The culture plays a significant role in

the law process. Internationally, different organizations and super power countries have come to the board to generate criminal laws that adhere to the current. This is highly facilitated by the criminal justice system. The criminal justice law system secure crime control and crime prevention with certain limitations of rights protection and legal certainty (Moore, 2010). A bothering threat in contemporary society is risk and responses. This issue has a significant impact on criminal law. The criminal law is required to prevent ham and risk creation. The community should adhere to the stipulated state and federal criminal laws. The community plays a critical role in respecting each right and freedom to avoid increased crimes in the society.

Impacts of race, gender and socio-economic status of criminal law

In U.S the creation of legislation was influenced by race, gender, socio-economic status. High power in the generation of law in U.S was accorded to the white. The civil liberties were highly given to the white people. The African Americans were the focus of the civil rights since they had less influence in law making process. The U.S constitution has expounded to cover the rights of other ethnic groups such as the disabled, women and elderly among others. In the 1860s, African Americans were a neglected race in American ranks. In America, the blacks were not allowed to vote and therefore had a very low influence on the U.S Constitution.

The African Americans initially were subjected to slavery. The white men in America used to mistreat the black people by subjecting them to slave labor. In South America, the Africans used to work in plantations. The constitutional clause and laws generated that

time only favored the white race.

This issue has remained dominant due to Jim Crow laws and slavery effects. An ongoing discrimination is still evident in the U.S civil rights. Before reconstruction in the US. African American rights were profoundly violated since they were viewed as a minority group. Around the 1950s, in the USA history, there were separate law schools for the white and the blacks.

For instance, in 1950, Texas established a separate law school for blacks. The schools for blacks lacked some intangible aspects of law and therefore inferior. In the recent past, this issue has changed although there are few traits of the past. The white and black races in America are accorded criminal law equally.

In U.S any citizen who indulges in activities that violate the criminal law is granted the stipulated punishment and judgment as in the constitution (Robinson & Darley, 2015). African Americans have shown up some efforts in observing the laws as well as the amending some of the existing legislation. The African Americans have a say in the U.S constitution and law making process. Treating and judging convicts according to the law in U.S has shown a significant improvement since every race feels highly accorded.

However, there exist some disparity between the white and black race in U.S. the blacks are more likely convicted for the same crime than whites. The blacks also serve long sentences in jail. The blacks and other minority groups in U.S are subjected to hate speeches more frequently than the whites.

In gender, males are seen to be more dominant when compared to females. For instance, women were not given the right to vote in U.S

until 1920. The African American women were denied some rights for their well-being and safety. The reasonable basis test was used to identify discrimination between men and women. The court uses strict scrutiny test to identify unequal treatment by the law effects (Zorza, 2012). This is applied in all race cases. A white woman is treated well when compared to a black American woman.

The Supreme Court has played a significant role in protecting women rights; for instance protection and affirmative action against sexual harassment. In the recent past, women influence in judicial, executive and legislative has incremented. Both the women and men have equal criminal and civil rights.

In U.S.A, the black families are three times below the poverty line as white households (Paust et al, 2010). Averagely, a white household has nearly six times the assets of an ordinary black family. The rate of unemployment among the adult black male is high and twice that of the white men. The gaps between the white and black are large. The gap continues to increase every day. The African Americans have less impact on the criminal law due to low socioeconomic status among the blacks.

Criminal law has a vast range in the U.S constitution. The law applies to all races in U.S.A. Criminal plays a critical role in maintaining peace and harmony in the USA society. Despite wide variation in the application of the law among the races, the law accords treatment and fair judgment according to the level of the criminal case.

References

1. Paust, J. L., Scharf, M. P., Sadat, L., Bassiouni, M. C., Gurulé, J., Zagaris, B., & Williams, S. A. (2010). International criminal law (pp. 857-62). Durham
   

NC: Carolina Academic Press.