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Origins of American Criminal Law

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Origins of American Criminal Law
Assignment 1
LEG 320: Criminal Law
Professor Gloria Sodaro
Strayer University
April 23, 2012

Origins of American Criminal Law:
This report will cover four different parts that are crucial to how American criminal laws came about. The first part will consist of one Amendment of my choosing that is related to the protection of people, their property, or criminal law itself. The second part is on the specific powers that the federal government has been granted with to make criminal laws versus those our state governments have been grant with. The third part will define, compare and contrast the four main goals of our criminal justice system. Then the last part will explain what is meant by police power and the limitations to that power.
In order to understand and interpret any one of the Amendments to our Constitution, we need to know what the word amendment means. The definition of the word amendment is a correction or alteration of a manuscript, document, or record usually to improve it according to The American Heritage® Dictionary (The American Heritage® Dictionary, 2012).
The Amendment this report will talk about is the Fourth Amendment. This Amendment is the search and seizure amendment. The Fourth Amendment to me means that the government cannot conduct unlawful searches and seizures of any one person and their property (Territo, Halsted, & Bromley, 2004). I think that the purpose of this Amendment is important because it protects us all from the government in invading our privacy and the police from using their power to investigate a crime without probable cause. Another thing that goes along with this is the police need a warrant in order to search and seize people and their things. This amendment first came about because of the Writs of Assistance, which are British warrants, and they gave the Britain police the right to search people and their things at any time they wanted to. The United States’ ancestors were mostly smugglers and did not approve of this so that is where they came up with this Amendment (Head, 2012).
Many criminal justice jobs are affected by this Amendment. One is the United States Supreme Court Judges. They play an important role in the process. When a case goes before them they determine if the Amendment was violated any where throughout the case with in lower courts. Another job that could be affected by the Fourth Amendment is prosecutors, which are lawyers because if the police do not have probable cause than the evidence will be thrown out. Then on the law enforcement side, there are the jobs of state police, city police, and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI agents). These jobs seem to be the most affected by this Amendment and the way they obtain their evidence has a big part in if this Amendment was violated or not for that, they need warrants. I think through the way these jobs operate is how the Fourth Amendment is relevant to criminal law today.
Our government is based on federalism, which is the equal distribution of control between the federal, state and local governments of our nation. This basically means one part of our government does not have supreme power of another part of the government. This is where checks and balances come into play. The federal government is accountable for establishing federal criminal laws through the powers the United States Constitution granted them. In addition, every state has a major obligation to keep stability, harmony, and safety of the people within that state. The specific powers the Constitution grants our federal government is the ability to print money, create an army, proclaim war, construct treaties with foreign countries, control commerce between states and international trade, and to construct laws that enforce the Constitution. Where as each state was granted the powers to create local governments, distribute licenses (like marriage and driver), control interstate commerce (within a state), hold elections, offer public health and safety, the ability to set smoking and drinking age laws, and the ability to ratify Amendments to the Constitution. The powers both federal and state governments share are making and gathering of taxes, borrowing money, applying and composing laws, establishing courts, developing highways, spending money for the improvement of the overall safety of the nation and states, and they can condemn private property with fair reimbursement (Longely, 2012). There are four main goals to our criminal justice system. The first one is to prevent and frighten people from executing crimes. This goal is fairly straight to the point. We try to prevent and frighten people from committing crimes by arresting them, prosecuting them, and punishing them as the judge or jury see fit in hopes that they learn from their mistakes. Another part to this goal is preventing innocent people from being incarcerated. The second one is to defend society from threatening and destructive people. The way we defend society from these types of people is by means of arresting offenders, having them face their peers for the crime they commit, and sentencing them fairly. The third goal is penalize people who have acted out a crime. A judge or the jury sentence the offender fairly and according to the crime they are convicted of. Some punishments that a judge or jury may hand out are life without parole, prohibition, and ten to twenty years in prison. Then there are the rare cases that a death sentence may be the offenders’ punishment. Their last goal is to take in and change people who have performed crimes. This goal basically states that the state or the federal government provides a place for the offenders’ to live and in the process helps them in changing their lives by means of learning from their actions (Gardner & Anderson, Goals and Purposes of Criminal Law, 2012). Police power is the state’s established power by the Constitution to rule, make, adopt, and apply laws for the defense and safeguarding of community health, fairness, standards, stability, protection, sanctuary, and happiness. It also gives a government the right to take personal property for community use under the doctrine of eminent domain. Police power is important and necessary, which cannot be relinquished or removed, it is exposed to restrictions required by the Constitution such as due process and supremacy of the law of the land (Police Power, 2012). In addition, police power is not unquestionable. There are some limitations to police power. One limitation is that the interest of the general public comes first before interference is required by the state. Another limitation is that the laws do not infringe upon the rights granted to people by the US Constitution or the states constitution. The last limitation is the language of the law is clearly stated for people in telling them what they are not allowed to do and what is expected of them (Gardner & Anderson, The Use and Limitations of the Police Power to Maintain Public Order, 2012).

References:
Gardner, T. J., & Anderson, T. M. (2012). Goals and Purposes of Criminal Law. In T. J. Garnder, & T. M. Anderson, Criminal Law (11th ed., p. 9). Mason, Ohio, USA: Cengage Learning.
Gardner, T. J., & Anderson, T. M. (2012). The Use and Limitations of the Police Power to Maintain Public Order. In T. J. Gardner, & T. M. Anderson, Criminal Law (11th ed., p. 11). Mason, Ohio, USA: Cengage Learning.
Head, T. (2012, n.d.). The Fourth Amendment. (The New York Times Company) Retrieved 2012, 23-April from About.com: http://civilliberty.about.com/od/lawenforcementterrorism/p/4th_amendment.htm
Longely, R. (2012, n.d.). Federalism: National VS. State Government. (The New York Times Company) Retrieved April 23, 2012, from About.com: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/rightsandfreedoms/a/federalism.htm
Police Power. (2012, n.d.). (Web Finance Inc.) Retrieved April 23, 2012, from Business Dictionary.com: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/police-power.html
Territo, L., Halsted, J. B., & Bromley, M. L. (2004). Crime and Justice in America: A Human Perspective. In L. Territo, J. B. Halsted, & M. L. Bromley, Crime and Justice in America: A Human Perspective (6th ed., p. 98). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Inc.
The American Heritage® Dictionary. (2012, n.d.). Amendment, 4th. (Houghton Mifflin Company) Retrieved 2012, 23-April from The Free Dictionary by Farlex Inc.: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/amendment

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