English Criminal Law/Introduction

Introduction

Criminal law is a branch of law that deals with crimes by forbidding behavior that is threatening or harmful to other people. Understanding criminal law, whatever the jurisdiction, requires that you: become aware of the complexity and occasionally contradictory nature of criminal justice. explore the theory behind criminal law concepts examine the methods for avoiding or reducing criminal responsibility are able to outline some of the major criminal offences The topics covered in this book will help you achieve these objectives by covering the basic principles of criminal law and criminality, criminal liability, the structure of an offence, and examining the most important of the numerous criminal offences.

Look at the first sentence of this page and note that seems a straightforward definition. It is easy to accept simple definitions but this is a complex and controversial area that can be examined by asking what is a crime? There is no single universal definition but one answer would be the "black letter" approach: “ Crime is an intentional act in violation of the criminal law, committed without defence or excuse and penalised by the state. ” —Tappan, P., Who is the Criminal? (1947) Naturally this leads to the questions of what should be a crime and what the criminal justice system should do? There have to be genuine justifications for punishing someone because it is a very serious infringement of their personal liberty.

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