criminal procedure

Examples of criminal procedure in the following topics:

• The Rights of the Accused

  • Currently, in many countries with a democratic system and the rule of law, criminal procedure puts the burden of proof on the prosecution – that is, it is up to the prosecution to prove that the defendant is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, as opposed to having the defendant prove that s/he is innocent; any doubt is resolved in favor of the defendant.
  • United States criminal procedure derives from several sources of law: the baseline protections of the United States Constitution, federal and state statutes, federal and state rules of criminal procedure (such as the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure), and state and federal case law either interpreting the foregoing or deriving from inherent judicial supervisory authority.
  • The United States Constitution, including the United States Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments, contains provisions regarding criminal procedure.
  • Due to the incorporation of the Bill of Rights, all of these provisions apply equally to criminal proceedings in state courts, with the exception of the Grand Jury Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Vicinage Clause of the Sixth Amendment, and (maybe) the Excessive Bail Clause of the Eighth Amendment.

• The Miranda Warning

  • The Miranda warning is a statement read by police to criminal suspects that asserts their right to counsel and right to remain silent.
  • The Miranda warning (also referred to as Miranda rights) is a warning given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) before they are interrogated to preserve the admissibility of their statements against them in criminal proceedings.
  • In other words, a Miranda warning is a preventive criminal procedure rule that law enforcement is required to administer to protect an individual who is in custody and subject to direct questioning or its functional equivalent from a violation of his or her Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination.
  • Thus in theory, if law enforcement officials decline to offer a Miranda warning to an individual in their custody, they may still interrogate that person and act upon the knowledge gained, but may not use that person's statements to incriminate him or her in a criminal trial.
  • The Miranda rule applies to the use of testimonial evidence in criminal proceedings that is the product of custodial police interrogation.

• Civil Law and Criminal Law

  • Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime.
  • Criminal law also sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey these laws.
  • Criminal law differs from civil law, whose emphasis is more on dispute resolution than in punishment.
  • Civil law differs from criminal law, which emphasizes punishment rather than dispute resolution.
  • The California Penal Code, the codification of criminal law and procedure in the U.S. state of California.

• Crime

  • For example: as cultures change and the political environment shifts, societies may criminalize or decriminalize certain behaviors, which directly affects the statistical crime rates, influences the allocation of resources for the enforcement of laws, and re-influences the general public opinion.
  • One can view criminalization as a procedure deployed by society as a pre-emptive, harm-reduction device, using the threat of punishment as a deterrent to anyone proposing to engage in the behavior causing harm.
  • The state becomes involved because governing entities can become convinced that the costs of not criminalizing, through allowing the harms to continue unabated, outweigh the costs of criminalizing it, restricting individual liberty, for example, to minimize harm to others.
  • Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society.

• The Right to Due Process

  • Due process rights provides legal protections while a citizen is charged by the courts and other legal procedures.
  • The Supreme Court of the United States interprets these two clauses as providing four protections: procedural due process in civil and criminal proceedings, substantive due process, a prohibition against vague laws, and as the vehicle for the incorporation of the Bill of Rights .
  • This protection extends to all government proceedings that can result in an individual's deprivation, whether civil or criminal in nature, from parole violation hearings to administrative hearings regarding government benefits and entitlements to full-blown criminal trials.
  • At a basic level, procedural due process is essentially based on the concept of fundamental fairness.
  • In criminal cases, many of these due process protections overlap with procedural protections provided by the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees reliable procedures that protect innocent people from being executed, which would be an obvious example of cruel and unusual punishment.

• Class, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System

  • Class structure within the criminal justice system helps determine the types of crimes individuals will commit.
  • They discussed the fact that inner city kids tended to be more involved in a criminal lifestyle than kids who lived in the suburbs.
  • Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts.
  • Within the criminal justice system, there are three basic elements that constitute it: the police, the courts, and punishment.
  • Courts rely on an adversarial process in which attorneys-one representing the defendant and one representing the crown-present their cases in the presence of a judge who monitors legal procedures.

• Security risks and internet risks

  • The biggest challenge companies face in tackling IS security risks is the growing sophistication of hackers and other cyber-criminals.
  • Organizations must now contend with a range of hi-tech attacks orchestrated by well organized, financially-motivated criminals.
  • This is why it is important to have a procedure of backing up critical files on a daily basis, and have written, tested procedures to recover needed information from backup files quickly.
  • Companies and some individuals traditionally have relied on physical security such as locks and safes to protect their vital business information now face a more insidious virtual threat from cyber-criminals who use the Internet to carry out their attacks without ever setting foot in an establishment or someone's home.

• The Fifth Amendment

  • The Fifth Amendment protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure.
  • No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

• Persecution in the International Criminal Court

• Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002

  • It also creates a central oversight board tasked with registering auditors, defining the specific processes and procedures for compliance audits, inspecting and policing conduct and quality control, and enforcing compliance with the specific mandates of SOX.
  • Title VIII describes specific criminal penalties for manipulation, destruction or alteration of financial records or other interference with investigations, while providing certain protections for whistle-blowers.
  • Title IX increases the criminal penalties associated with white-collar crimes and conspiracies.
  • It recommends stronger sentencing guidelines and specifically adds failure to certify corporate financial reports as a criminal offense.
  • It identifies corporate fraud and records tampering as criminal offenses and joins those offenses to specific penalties.