Choose an area of law: ALL Administrative Adderall Administrative Admiralty Maritime & Jones Act Adoption Advertising Age Discrimination Agency Agency and Distributorship Agricultural Air Bag Defects Antitrust And Trade Regulation Appellate Practice Arava Arbitration Asbestos Ativan Auto Accident Avandia Aviation Aviation And Aerospace Banking Bankruptcy Baycol Bell's Palsy Benzene Bextra Birth Injury Birth Injury Bus Accident Business Business Bankruptcy Capital Markets Car Fires Celebrex Cerebral Palsy Child Custody Child Support Civil Law Civil Litigation Civil Rights Civil Rights Class Action Collections Commercial Commercial Litigation Communications Computer Constitutional Construction Consumer Contracts Controlled Substances Copyright Corporate Credit Crestor Criminal Customs Debtor And Creditor Defective Car Seat Defective Seatbelt Discrimination Divorce Dram Shop Driving Violations Drug Litigation DUI - DWI E-Commerce Education Education Elder Election Campaign & Political Eminent Domain Employee Benefits Enbrel Energy Entertainment And Sports Environmental Ephedra Equestrian Equine Erbs Palsy ERISA Estate Law Ethics Family Federal Criminal Defense FELA Fen Phen Finance Foreclosure Franchising Gaming General Practice Geodon Government Government Government Contracts Guidant Health Care Hospitalization Human Rights Immigration Indians & Native Populations Insurance Intellectual Property International International Trade Internet and Cyberspace Investments Joint Ventures Juvenile Defense Labor And Employment Land Development Landlord Lariam Lasik Litigation Legal Malpractice Lemon Licensing Litigation Livestock Lotronex Manganese Media Mediation Medical Malpractice Medical Malpractice Medicare/Medicaid Medtronic Pacemaker Mergers And Acquisitions Meridia Mesothelioma Metabolife Military Military and Armed Services Motor Vehicle Accidents Motorcycle Accident Native American Affairs Natural Resources Naturalization Neurontin Nursing Home Abuse Occupational Safety & Health Oil and Gas Oxycontin Packaging Paraplegia Partnership Patents Paxil Permax Personal Bankruptcy Personal Injury Plavix Prempro Privacy Probate Products Liability Professional Liability Professional Licensing Property Prozac Quadriplegia Qui Tam Railroad Railroad Accident Real Estate Remicade Rezulin Rhogam Risperdal Securities Securities Fraud Serevent Seroquel Serzone Sexual Harassment Shoulder Dystocia Social Security Spinal Cord Injury Stevens Johnson Syndrome Strattera Sudden Cardiac Death SUV Rollovers Tardive Dyskinesia Taxation Technology And Science Telecommunications Tenant Thimerosal Tire Recalls Toxic Torts Trademarks Traffic Transportation Traumatic Brain Injury Trucking Accident Trusts And Estates Unfair Competition Utilities Veterans Viagra Vioxx Water Rights Whistle Blower White Collar Crime Wills And Probate Women's Rights Workers Compensation Wrongful Death Wrongful Termination Zicam Zoloft Zoning Planning And Land Use Zyprexa Choose a state: -- Choose -- Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington, DC West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
	Search by State | Advanced Search

Criminal Lawyer

LawyerFinder.com is a FREE consumer service. We are NOT a law firm.  We assist consumers in locating Criminal Lawyers and law firms in specific regions.

We provide comprehensive law firm profiles so that you can review, screen and learn more about our members prior to contacting an attorney.  In many cases our Criminal Lawyer members provide useful articles and example cases to aid you in intelligently choosing the most appropriate legal representation for your unique situation.

To locate a Criminal Lawyer, simply choose a state from the form to the top right or choose the link from the left hand menu of this page.

Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of law that punishes criminals for committing offences against the state. The goal of this process is that of achieving criminal justice.

According to criminal law, crimes are offences against the social order. In common law jurisdictions, there is a legal fiction that crimes disturb the peace of the sovereign. Government officials, as agents of the sovereign, are responsible for the prosecution of offenders. Hence, the criminal law "plaintiff" is the sovereign, which in practical terms translates into the monarch or the people.

The main objective of criminal law is punishing the offender and discouraging others to offend, while that of civil law is individual compensation to whom the wrong was committed against. Criminal offences consist of two distinct elements; the physical act (the actus reus, guilty act) and the requisite mental state with which the act is done (the mens rea, guilty mind). For example, in murder the 'actus reus is the unlawful killing of a person, while the 'mens rea is malice aforethought (the intention to kill or cause grievous injury). The criminal law also details the defenses that defendants may bring to lessen or negate their liability (criminal responsibility) and specifies the punishment which may be inflicted. Criminal law neither requires a victim, nor a victim's consent, to prosecute an offender. Furthermore, a criminal prosecution can occur over the objections of the victim and the consent of the victim is not a defense in most crimes.

Criminal law in most jurisdictions both in the common and civil law traditions is divided into two fields:

Criminal procedure regulates the process for addressing violations of criminal law
Substantive criminal law details the definition of, and punishments for, various crimes.
Criminal law distinguishes crimes from civil wrongs such as tort or breach of contract. Criminal law has been seen as a system of regulating the behavior of individuals and groups in relation to societal norms at large whereas civil law is aimed primarily at the relationship between private individuals and their rights and obligations under the law. Although many ancient legal systems did not clearly define a distinction between criminal and civil law, in England there was little difference until the codification of criminal law occurred in the late nineteenth century. In most U.S. law schools, the basic course in criminal law is based upon the English common criminal law of 1750 (with some minor American modifications like the clarification of mens rea in the Model Penal Code).
(this article compliments of Wikipedia)

Related Practice Areas

• Appeals
• Criminal Defense
• Driving Violations
• DUI
• DWI
• Federal Criminal Defense
• Juvenile Defense

Find Criminal Lawyers. Click on the state below:

Our goal with the Criminal section of LawyerFinder.com is to try and help legal consumers get in touch with legal professionals practicing Criminal law, such as: Criminal lawyers, Criminal law firm or Criminal attorneys.

Criminal News

Legal Marketplace

Expert Witnesses | Practice Support | Court Reporter | Process Server | Bail Bonds | Legal Investigator | Legal Software | Legal Technology | ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution)

Home | About Us | Privacy & Disclaimer | Contact Us | Add your firm | Advertise

Affiliate Program | Affiliate Login | Firm Login

The purpose of LawyerFinder.com is to provide a listing of attorneys and experts and access to legal information and resources. WE DO NOT PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE. We strive to make sure that the content provided on this site is as up-to-date and as accurate, as possible. However, we do not guarantee that ALL information is current since laws and information tends to change on a regular basis.

Listings by lawyers, businesses and experts on LawyerFinder.com are provided strictly by the lawyers,businesses or experts themselves. Although, we attempt to validate each listing before adding to the database, LawyerFinder.com is not responsible for errors and inaccuracies in listings or misrepresentation by listing professionals.. When viewing a listing, consider the state advertising rules to which lawyers and law firms must adhere and see our disclaimer & privacy policy.

©1997-2007 Trumpet Marketing Group,LLC

Legal Practice Pages provided by LegalMarketingPros.com

LawyerFinder®, Legal PracticePages™ and LifeTime Legal Links™ are trademarks of Trumpet Marketing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.