ADMJ 1400 Chapter 1: Criminal Law and Punishment in U.S. Society

• School: Pitt
• Department: Administration of Justice
• Course: ADMJ 1400
• Professor: David Cercone

Document Summary

Social reality of us criminal law (luna): us criminal law can be divided into 2 categories a small number of serious, core offenses and a large number of lesser crimes (or everything else) Criminal law imagination: the contributions of law, history, philosophy, social sciences, and biology to explain the moral desires we wish to impose on the world. Core felonies: felonies against persons: murder, manslaughter, rape, kidnapping, and robbery, felonies against property: theft, robbery, arson and burglary. Believed to be morally wrong and should be punished for them. Hard punishment = more than a year of sentencing. Social reality of core felonies: far fewer core offenses and people committing them than in the rest of criminal law, core offenses are ancient, stable definition, short list. Carries our preamble: form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.