Understanding Criminal Law: Protecting Society from Anti-Social Behavior

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[...] General Introduction to Criminal Law > We are all potential criminals Emile Durkheim: 'Crime is as old as the world' > General Criminal Law: Vindictive Law (society uses law to avenge) « Pacts without swords are but words" - Hobbes" Introduction : > Harmony in society requires the protection of certain social values such as persons, goods, institutions to which society has entrusted the management of public affairs. [...]

[...] > Due to its expressive function, penal law is the expression of a culture in a given space In other words, penal law groups together the 'protected social values' Section 1 - Historical Overview > The repression of infractions is exercised by the state The punitive or vindictive action belongs to society > It is exercised before the judicial authority and the penalty is inflicted in the name of society > Historically, public justice pronounces very severe penalties such as death, torture (fire, mutilation or strangulation) > From the 18th century and under the impetus of the political ideas of the time, a vast movement of softening of penal sanctions - Beccaria, Treatise on Crimes and Punishments Condemns the death penalty which he proposes to replace with perpetual slavery AND emphasizes the importance of replacing it with education which should allow the recidivist to reintegrate - Napoleon also undertook a large codification project (1808 Criminal Instruction Code) This text takes up some revolutionary ideas and notably the principle of legality of crimes and penalties There is no crime or offense without a text of law - This codification undertaken by Napoleon also draws on the utilitarian philosophy of the English Jeremy Bentham 'The state should not use its repressive power beyond the purpose conferred by the social contract.' Punishment can only intervene insofar as it is useful to the defense of society The penal law must be used by society to combat crime > The penal legislation remains in the liberal inspiration as a whole until 1945. [...]

[...] > Certain anti-social behaviors that are most dangerous to social order and that undermine protected social values constitute the criminal phenomenon that criminal law sanctions. [...]

[...] While in primitive societies, the social reaction to the criminal phenomenon is expressed in the form of vengeance, witch hunts or even popular vendettas, the penal law is deeply rooted in a culture for which it expresses its major taboos. [...]

[...] In the post-war period, positivist ideas emerged under the impetus of a high-ranking French magistrate, either Marc ANCEL and his famous book: The New Social Defense - For him, the individualization of the penalty must include measures of resocialization in order to prevent any relapse into criminality - The cornerstone of this individualization of the penalty device is the creation of the judge of the application of penalties in charge of following the evolution of the offender after his condemnation > In a broad sense, penal law is defined as the branch of positive law that studies the repression by the State against the attacks on the socially protected values Society defends itself against the delinquent who, by his behavior, infringes on social order, that is, on the socially protected values > Penal law is also defined as the law that defines the scope of application of penal law (in time and in space), and enunciates the conditions of punishability Section 2 - The content of penal law The traditional branches The penal procedure > The penal procedure is composed of the set of rules governing the penal process, that is the set of rules indicating the way in which offenses are detected and how offenders will be prosecuted and judged The special penal law > The special penal law establishes a catalog of incriminations (series of offenses studied separately, specifically) The detailed study of offenses in general, but each taken individually (theft, abuse of trust, murder . [...]