identify the steps for accurately establishing if criminal law was breached and if an
individual (the accused) can be deemed culpable for the breach and consequently
punished.
Just like its civil counterpart, the criminal process culminates in a decision taken
by a judge on the evidence available. However, the interests at stake in a criminal
process are of far greater importance than in civil litigations: they include both the
dignity, reputation, and often the liberty of a person and also the interest of society
in a secure and crime-free community.
State InvolvementSince it is the entire society that bears an interest in the
prosecution and punishment of crimes and criminals, the state is directly involved
in the criminal process. At its origin, the criminal process was an action brought by
an alleged victim against an alleged perpetrator. However, as time went by, all
systems evolved toward a centralized system of state prosecution, where the state
authorities are given the powers to investigate and act against the alleged offenders.
However, in some countries, e.g. England, Spain, Germany, it is still possible for a victim to
bring a private criminal prosecution.
This happened for different reasons. The first reason, based on the assumption
that a crime always offends and threatens the society as a whole, is that the
monarchs and the citizens felt the need that the essential interest of a secure society
should not be not left in the hands of single untrained individuals.
The second reason is that the array of punishable offenses widened over time to
include crimes that offend the state at large and not just one of its individuals. This
includes crimes against public order, crimes against the economy, and crimes
against the environment.
The last reason is that private victims often did not have the resources to take up
the task of investigating and prosecuting their offenders.
State Powers In order to discover crimes, the state authorities are given a signifi-
cant amount of power. The criminal process entails a larger exercise of coercive and
intrusive powers than its civil counterpart. Discovering crimes and criminals is
essential to ensure the well-being and tranquility of society, but crimes are not
always immediately visible. It is for this reason that the powers conferred by the
state to its competent authorities are larger and more pervasive than those available
to any private civil litigants. This triggers a tension unknown to civil proceedings:
the tension between security and liberty or, put in other terms, between crime
control and protection of rights. The coercive and intrusive powers given to state
authorities to discover and prosecute crimes encroach upon the liberties of
individuals, whether or not they are suspected of a crime.
For instance, home searches, interceptions of communications, surveillance measures
restricts the privacy of their targets. Arrests and personal searches encroach upon the
personal liberty of suspects.7 Criminal Law 145