Criminal Law deals with matters relating to investigation, prosecution, and punishment of crimes, including specific crimes such as homicide and drug-related crimes, and lesser offenses such as parking and traffic violations.

• What is the Criminal Law?
  The criminal law sets the acceptable limits of conduct in society. Everyone is expected to obey the criminal law under penalty of punishment. The criminal law generally does not require you to perform an action; rather it forbids an unlawful action. Each state and the federal government has its own set of criminal laws.
  
  
• What is a Crime?
  A crime is a wrong committed by a person against a State or the federal government. Because a wrong is committed against all members of the community, not just the particular victim, the victim does not make the decision to prosecute the accused person. The state or federal government, acting as the people's representative, prosecutes the crime. A crime is punishable by imprisonment, fine, restitution, or other penalty.
• What are the Kinds of Crimes?
  Under the common law (judge-made law) inherited from England, crimes are divided into two main categories: felonies and misdemeanors. The distinction between them is based on the crime's seriousness and on the length of punishment.
  
  
• What are the Sources of Criminal Law?
  State legislatures and the U.S. Congress enact criminal laws. In states having a common law system, state courts make criminal law based on the common law (judge-made law) inherited from England.
  
  
• What are the Elements of Crimes?
  Crimes (except for strict liability crimes) have two basic elements: the guilty mind and the guilty act.



• Felonies and Serious Crimes
  In the common law system, a felony is a crime generally punishable by more than one year’s imprisonment and enCriminal Laws the defendant to a jury trial. "Common law" felonies are also major crimes under the Model Penal Code.



• Driving While Intoxicated
  Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) is considered a serious crime in every state. Drinking alcohol or taking drugs may affect your ability to operate cars, boats or industrial equipment in a safe manner. It is against the law in every state to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs if you cannot safely operate the vehicle. DWI and Driving Under the Influence (DUI) refer to the same crime.



• Drug Crimes
  Each state and the federal government have laws against the unlawful use, manufacture, and distribution of drugs. The purpose of these laws is to reduce the unlawful consumption of drugs, reduce drug-related crimes, and severely punish repeat offenders and major drug dealers.



• Traffic Violations
  Traffic violations are "quasi-criminal" offenses, not violations of the general criminal law. Traffic violations are a mix of regulatory and penal offenses based on violations of state statutes and municipal ordinances relating to the operation of vehicles.



• The Criminal Justice Process
  The criminal justice process varies from state to state, and the federal criminal justice system has its own rules, procedures, and terms to describe the stages of the proceedings.



• The Rights of Citizens in the Criminal Justice Process
  The criminal justice process is the process by which crimes are investigated, charged, tried, and punished. Because the criminal justice system involves actions by the government against its citizens, the criminal justice process has been the subject of constitutional protections dating back, in the English common law system, to the Magna Carta.
  
  
• Punishment of Crime
  Crimes are punished according to their seriousness, with higher penalties imposed for more serious crimes.



• The Juvenile Justice Process
  In most cases, when a juvenile is accused of a crime, the justice process proceeds differently from the usual criminal justice process. The approach to juvenile crime is that juveniles do not commit crimes; they commit acts of delinquency that require state intervention to correct.