Murder, rape, burglary. These are what we know today as crimes, but it was not always so. Back in Roman times these were simply offenses against the individual. It was not until later on in post-Roman Europe that concept of offenses against the social order emerged. These offenses are so serious that they are dealt with by separate laws. Criminal law.

It is the fact that a crime is harmful to society, not just an individual, that makes it a criminal offense. Civil law is the branch of the legal system which manages crimes against the individual. Civil law covers situations where individuals have suffered damages, such as in the case of a wrongful dismissal. Someone guilty of a civil charge is likely to face a fine, whereas someone guilty of a criminal charge is likely to face jail time.

Crimes come in all shapes and sizes, but from a legal point of view they can be divided into two categories. Crimes of strict liability are those where it does not matter whether there was intent on the part of the criminal. Other crimes require both criminal intent and the act itself to be present. In legal parlance these conditions are referred to as mens rea and actus reus.

State statutes, case law and federal statutes are the three main ways that crimes are defined. Of these the most interesting is case law. Case law emerges from specific trials, where judges publish their rational for rulings. These opinions serve as precedents for future cases. However, exactly what constitutes a crime is sufficiently broad for defense lawyers to make arguments case by case.

The criminal justice system also has a number of different courts: state courts, federal courts, and special state criminal courts. Within each of these the most important issue at stake is whether each of the elements that make up a criminal offense was present. If it was not then a criminal offense has not taken place, and an acquittal is in order.

The US criminal justice system determines whether or not crimes have taken place. It does so by determining whether the elements of the criminal offense were present. If you are facing criminal charges you are up against some serious resources. This web site covers some interesting aspects of criminal law: http://hubpages.com/hub/Criminal-Liability-and-Actus-Reus