The criminal law is quite broad. Individuals found culpable of criminal offenses are subject to fines or even jail terms. Many legal cases like driving under the influence, sexual assault, assault, drug trafficking, and manslaughter among other. Most of these crimes are generally classified into four main categories, statutory crimes, personal crimes, property crimes, financial crimes, and inchoate crimes. Read on to learn more about these types of crimes.
Statutory Crimes
Statutory crimes fall under most classifications discussed below only that a statute proscribes them. The most common types of statutory crimes today include drug crimes, traffic offenses, financial/white collar offenses and alcohol-related crimes. Legal statutes are meant to deter individuals from engaging in them specifically prohibit most of these crimes. For instance, alcohol-related crimes cover things DUI, public intoxication, and selling alcohol to minors, among other crimes.
Personal Crimes
Crimes classified under personal crimes cover acts aimed at harming another person either physically or mentally. These crimes can be further divided into homicides and violent crimes. A crime can be classified as a homicide if the physical is considered quite severe to the effect that there are is a life or lives lost in the process. Violent crimes, on the other hand, involve bodily harms and might include crimes like child abuse, rape, kidnapping, and arson among others.
Property crimes
Property crimes essentially cover actions that interfere or damage the property of others. As much as this might also involve some personal injury, they mainly involve deprivation of the use of private property. In most instances, most property crimes in the courts are theft crimes. Some common theft crimes include burglary, auto theft, and shoplifting.
Inchoate Crimes
Inchoate crimes are essentially crimes initiated but not completed. Ideally, most of these crimes are meant to assist in the commission of other crimes. Ideally, for one to be convicted of an inchoate crime, the accused individual must have played a “key role” towards the completing of a crime. Inchoate crimes are classified as aiding, abetting, attempt, and conspiracy.
While there are many ways of addressing in different criminal offenses, the best thing to do is to enlist the services of a lawyer specializing in criminal law. Ideally, the nature of convictions extends to those found culpable depends on the expertise of the criminal lawyer you choose.