Lecture 8. Criminal Law

Definition of crime

Crime can be defined as a public wrong.

A crime may involve either the commission of a specific act of the omission or failure to act under certain circumstances.

Crimes (Common-law system)

Felonies Misdemeanors

Serious crimes not heavy

(Murder, rape, robbery)

jail sentences of small fines and/or

at least one year jail sentences

plus possible fines not exceeding one year

Typical crimes:

1. Larceny, or theft, is simply the unlawful taking of another person’s personal property with the intent of depriving the owner of his/her property.

2. Robbery, like larceny, involves the unlawful taking of personal property. However, robbery differs from larceny in that the unlawful taking involves the use of force, putting other persons in fear or injury. Thus, robbery is a more serious crime than larceny since it has the potential of physical harm to individuals.

3. Embezzlement differs from larceny in that the party charged with this crime had lawful possession of the money or property involved. However, the embezzler simply used the property or money for his/her own purposes.

4. Arson is willfully setting fire to and burning someone else’s building. Under most state statutes, arson now covers the burning of business buildings as well as dwellings. Plus - fraud against an insurance company.

5. Defrauding consumers by use of the mails. A crime to use the mails to solicit money for fraudulent purposes. False statements about products.

Defrauding consumers by using false labels, measures, and weights. Again, intention is a key factor in this crime. A simple mistake in weight or measurement is not a crime.

Forgery is the false or fraudulent making, or, the material alteration with the intent to defraud, of any writing which if it were genuine would be of legal effect and create legal liability.

Credit card fraud. Illegal or fraudulent use of stolen credit cards. The most common problem is the theft of credit cards and then the use of the stolen cards by the thief for two-three days until notice goes out to retailers that card is on a stolen list.

Computer crime. Computer-related crimes range from the theft of a computer program worth thousands of dollars to the use of computers to embezzle millions of dollars. Three general categories:

“theft of property” – involves the use of the computer by an insider to steal funds of property.

“computer-assisted fraud” – the insiders arre using the record-keeping capacity of the computer to swindle and cheat outsiders out of funds.

Theft of confidential information from the computer by an outsider.

Criminal liability of accountants. Particularly in connection with their failure to discover and report fraud by corporate officers or employees.

Commercial bribery. A corporation pays the bribe, makes illegal contributions.

You can fine a corporation, but you can not put it into jail.

Criminal liability of corporate executives. Managers, corporate directors and corporate officers whose decision caused the criminal act.

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