Assignment #3

(Credit to Rutgers School Of Law)

HAWAII LAW

The definition of a felony according to dictionary.com is an offense, as murder or burglary, of graver character than those called misdemeanors. Felonies are subjective and vary accordingly for every state. Some examples of a felony in the state of Hawaii are tethering a dog or confining it to an inhumane place. (Hanabusa, 2009. http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/CommReports/SB1222_SD1_SSCR590_.HTM) When convicted with a felony, it will make a persons life very difficult to survive outside of prison. They would have hard times finding jobs, lose certain civil rights and licensing. On the other hand, a misdemeanor is a criminal offense less serious than a felony. Like felonies, misdemeanors vary from state to state. An example of a misdemeanor in Hawaii would be if a person were to be found in possession with a concealed weapon. Any such person concealing a dangerous weapon can be arrested on the spot without a warrant and jailed immediately.
It seems like common law crimes are serious crimes a person has committed or intends to commit. On the other hand, felonies and misdemeanors seem to considered more like minor crimes that have been committed or the person may or may not have intended to commit a crime.

In Hawaii, when a person pleads insanity, the courts use the American Law Institute standard to determine if the insanity plea is liable. It is also known as the Substantial Capacity Test (ALI). The ALI was designed to soften the M’naghten rule, which states if at the time of the criminal act, the perpetrator was suffering from a disease of the mind that they did not know the nature of the act, or didn’t know what they were doing was wrong. The Substantial Capacity Test states insanity should be defined as an impairment to control one’s behavior. This test is a combination of the M’naghten rule and the irresistible pulse which says a person is insane if they did know their actions were illegal, but had a disorder where they couldn’t control their actions. The main difference is the Substantial Capacity Test allows for more medical evidence to be present.
If an offender in Hawaii meets the requirements for the ALI, they are acquitted for a physical or mental disorder. This would mean they are formally innocent in the terms of the courts. However, the perpetrator will most likely go through treatment at the discretion of the courts ruling. Treatments are not required all the time, but it is up to the Hawaii justice system to determine if the offender needs hospitalization or not.

PBS Frontline. (1995-2005).State Insanity Defense Laws. Retrieved September20, 2009, from Frontline: Official website Website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/states.html

Siegel, L. (2008). Introduction to Criminal Justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

In 2007 IC3 received at total of 810 complaints from the state of Hawaii. Auction fraud and Non-delivery of merchandise/payment made up 69% of the complaints. The others were made up of: Confidence fraud, Check fraud, Credit Card fraud, Computer fraud, Financial Institutions fraud, Identity theft, and Nigerian Letter fraud. The amount of money loss was between $100-$4999.99, although the highest amount taken was $75,000 involving confidence fraud. The total losses reported exceeded $1 million dollars. Out of the top 9 categories 5 of them who reported the loss, lost 100% of it. 3 out of the remaining 4 lost over 93% and the least being 31% lost. The total median dollar loss for all complaints reporting a dollar loss was $750.00. In Hawaii, 78.2% of the perpetrators were male and only 21.8% were female. The complaints consisted of 58.6% reported by males and 41.4% reported by females, but the ages varied a lot. Most of the complaints were reported by people between the ages of 20 and 59. This group made up 90.4% of the complaints. The rest being from either under 20 or over 60 years of age. Even though 7% of the complaints were from people over the age of 60, the average loss from the age group was the highest at $1350. Hawaii as a whole only makes up of .5% of the total complaints in the U.S.

Internet Crime Complain Center. (2007). Hawaii’s IC3 2007 Internet Crime Report. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from IC3Web site:

http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2007/Hawaii%202007%20Report.pdf