Criminal and Civil Law

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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idual found not guilty in a criminal trial but held accountable in civil court is that of O.J. Simpson. Simpson was acquitted of the murder of his wife, Nicole, and Ron Goldman. However, subsequent proceedings initiated by the families of the two murdered individuals in civil court resulted in the levying of massive fines against Simpson. Cases such as this illustrate the inherent complexity involved in resolving tort cases that are heard in two different courts. Reid (2003) notes that the standards of evidence and rules of procedure that govern civil and criminal courts are different and it is these differences which account for disparities in case outcomes. Two Different Murder Cases In two recent high profile murder cases, the outcomes could not have been more different. Scott Peterson, charged with the offense of killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and his unborn son, Connor, was found guilty of murder and ultimately sentenced to death (Murphy, 2005). Hollywood actor, Robert Blake, accused of killing his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, in contrast, was found not guilty of trying to hire a hit man. The jury was deadlocked on whether he tried to hire a second assassin (Kennedy & Heller, 2005). Where Peterson was convicted of mu
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Approximate Word count = 1610
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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