Penalties for Committing Crimes Include Fines and Imprisonment

Crimes are offenses against society that are prosecuted by the state or the government. Penalties for committing crimes include fines and imprisonment.

Goals of punishment include general deterrence, special deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation (restraint), social condemnation, and retribution.

Elements of a crime The following elements must be present to prove a person guilty of most crimes:

* Criminal act--the defendant must have performed the criminal act, called the actus reus or guilty act

* Criminal intent--the accused must have possessed the requisite state of mind, i.e. specific or general intent, when the act was performed. This is called mens rea or evil intent.

* Strict liability--some statutes impose criminal liability based on strict liability

* mens rea--"Evil intent"--the possession of the requisite state of mind to commit a prohibited act.

* actus reus--"Guilty act"--the actual performance of the criminal act.

Criminal procedure

* Arrest--Before a person can be arrested, an arrest warrant must be obtained based on a showing of probable cause that the person committed the crime.

* Indictment or information--An accused person must be formally charged with a crime before he or she can be brought to trial. Usually this is done by issuing a grand jury indictment or a magistrate's information statement.

* Arraignment--During the arraignment, the accused is brought before a court and informed of the charges against him or her and asked to enter a plea.

* Plea bargaining--When the accused admits to a lesser crime than charged, that is a plea bargain. In return, the government agrees to impose a lesser sentence than it might have obtained had the case gone to trial.

* In a criminal trial, if the defendant is found guilty, he or she may appeal. If the defendant is found innocent, the government may not appeal.

White collar crimes

* Embezzlement is the fraudulent conversion of property by a person to whom that property was entrusted.

* Criminal fraud is the obtaining of title to property through deception or trickery. Mail and wire fraud are included in this designation.

* Bribery occurs when one person gives another person money, property, favors, or anything else of value for a favor in return.

Relationships to other crimes

* Blue-collar crime is any crime committed by an individual from a lower social class as opposed to white collar crime which is associated with crime committed by individuals of a higher social class.

* State-corporate