Criminal and Civil Law

Application Exercises

Civil law pertains to the duties existing between persons or between citizens and their government. In contrast, criminal law has to do with a crime, defined as a wrong against society proclaimed in a statute and punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment or even in some cases, death. Crimes are offenses against society as a whole and are therefore prosecuted by a public official such as a District Attorney or Attorney General and not by victims as is the case in civil suits (Reid, 2003).

There are, however, any number of instances in which a case prosecuted in criminal court may also be heard in civil court. Some torts, such as assault and battery, provide a basis for criminal prosecution as well as a tort action in civil courts. For example, a person is walking down the street, minding his or her own business, when a stranger attacks him or her. In the ensuing struggle, the attacker injures the victim. A police officer restrains and arrests the wrongdoer, and the victim files criminal charges in conjunction with the local District Attorney (Reid, 2003).

In such a situation, the attacker can be subject to both criminal prosecution by the state and to a tort lawsuit brought by the victim to obtain compensation for injuries suffered during the attack. The physical attack can therefore be legally construed as both a tort and a crime.

The assailant has committed an assault, defined as an in

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Category: Government - C