On Thursday, November 12th, I visited the Fredericksburg General District Court of the 15th Judicial District of Virginia to observe cases beginning at 9:30 a.m. in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Virginia General District Court is the lowest level of the Virginia court system and is the most common court citizens of Virginia have contact with. The General District Court is a limited jurisdiction trial court that conducts trials involving traffic infractions and other criminal misdemeanor offenses, hears civil cases involving amounts of under $25,000, and holds preliminary hearings in felony cases. They do not conduct jury trials and all cases are heard and decided by the judge. There are 32 judicial districts of the General District Court serving
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135). In this case, the government was able to prove that the defendant violated the criminal statue through the police officers testimony and the complainants witness statement because public drunkenness and trespassing are already defined by the state legislative as criminalized actions. The complainants witness to the incident and how the police officers apprehended the defendant while he was still on the property proved that the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt committed the acts. The government proved that the defendant had the ability to form criminal intent because the defendant chose to drink to the point of intoxication on the night of the incident; thus the “accused consciously disregarded a substantial risk that the harm prohibited by the statute would result from his/her actions” (Mallor, p. 143). As a result, the government fulfilled all three essentials of a crime as we learned in the textbook. The purpose of the criminal justice system is to provide a sanction to those who have violated that law created by Congress and state legislative and protect those who have been affected by those actions. One of the ways in which the criminal justice system works to prevent socially unacceptable behavior is through deterrence, or the threat or imposition of punishment deters the commission of crimes (Mallor, p. 135). As seen in this case, the government sanctions the defendant with incarceration to deter him from committing future crimes as mentioned similarly in the
135). In this case, the government was able to prove that the defendant violated the criminal statue through the police officers testimony and the complainants witness statement because public drunkenness and trespassing are already defined by the state legislative as criminalized actions. The complainants witness to the incident and how the police officers apprehended the defendant while he was still on the property proved that the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt committed the acts. The government proved that the defendant had the ability to form criminal intent because the defendant chose to drink to the point of intoxication on the night of the incident; thus the “accused consciously disregarded a substantial risk that the harm prohibited by the statute would result from his/her actions” (Mallor, p. 143). As a result, the government fulfilled all three essentials of a crime as we learned in the textbook. The purpose of the criminal justice system is to provide a sanction to those who have violated that law created by Congress and state legislative and protect those who have been affected by those actions. One of the ways in which the criminal justice system works to prevent socially unacceptable behavior is through deterrence, or the threat or imposition of punishment deters the commission of crimes (Mallor, p. 135). As seen in this case, the government sanctions the defendant with incarceration to deter him from committing future crimes as mentioned similarly in the