1. How is civil law distinguished from criminal law? Define burden of proof and state which burden of proof applies to criminal law and which burden of proof applies to civil law. Provide a detailed example of a specific case involving civil and criminal charges.
2. What are victimless crimes? Why are they sometimes called social order offenses? Do you think that such law violations are truly victimless? Why, or why not? Please provide at least one specific example of a purported victimless crime to illustrate your position as to whether or not such crimes truly are victimless.
3. Regarding your state's criminal code, or the model penal code, briefly describe each of the following: North Carolina
a) What is complicity called, what are the elements of the offense, and what is the degree of offense relative to the crime that is committed?
b) What is conspiracy called, what are the elements of that offense, is any other act required by anyone, and what is the degree of offense relative to the crime that is being planned?
c) What are the offenses that could be classified in the category of someone who gives aid to an offender after the commission of an offense?
4. What fundamental claim is raised by the defense of necessity? When are claims of necessity most successful?
5. In the context of your reading assignments, is a syndrome an excuse, a justification, or an explanation? Are syndromes best viewed as potentially negating mens rea, as widening traditional defenses, or as justifying behavior for a particular class of people? Why?
6. A student leaves class, and while driving home he hits and kills a criminal law professor. Outline a changing set of facts and circumstances that would make this an offense of capital murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and negligent homicide.
7. What are the five types of computer crimes discussed in this unit? What are the unique features of each?
8. Give an example of false imprisonment. How does false imprisonment differ from kidnapping? How does it differ from false arrest?
9. Do citizen detainees in the United States relating to the current "war on terror" have a right to have their detentions reviewed, and if so, by whom? Do non-citizen detainees possess the same rights?
10. Charles Manson and his "family" murdered several people in California, including pregnant young movie star Sharon Tate. Since the murders, Sharon's mother Doris Tate and her sisters have championed the cause of victim's rights in California and across the United States. The Tate family has appeared at every parole hearing for every Manson family member over the past 40 years. As of August 9, 2009, the forty-year anniversary of the Tate-Labianca murders, no member of the "family" convicted of these murders has been paroled. Discuss the rights of the criminals, if any, and the rights of the families to make such statements at parole hearings. Are there any Constitutional issues? If so, what are they?