Читать книгу Criminology For Dummies - Steven Briggs - Страница 37

When you think of criminal activity, you likely think first of violent acts, such as murder, rape, kidnapping, theft, and assault. Crimes like these are known as mala in se, which is Latin for “wrong by itself.” (A few lawyers, myself included, still like to throw around Latin phrases — it makes us sound smart, right?)

Mala in se crimes are bad acts that people instinctively know are crimes. A general consensus in society says that these acts should be illegal because they’re immoral. This consensus didn’t just spring up overnight — it has been developing as part of English and U.S. common law over the last 600 years.

The term common law refers to laws created by court decisions rather than by legislative bodies.

Today, legislatures in most states have passed laws making mala in se acts criminal, which means that the justice system no longer relies on the common law to convict someone of this type of crime. (However, common law continues to play an important role in appellate decisions — court decisions made during appeals after people are convicted of crimes. See Chapter 19 for a detailed discussion of appellate courts.)