Criminal and Civil Court Systems Although both civil and criminal courts are intended to control human behavior they each have a different purpose. Criminal court deals with crimes and the punishment of criminal offenders which could include imprisonment, fines, community service and the death penalty whereas civil court deals with disputes between two parties which could be either organizations or individuals, with compensation (usually financial) being awarded to the victim (Abadinsky, 2014). Civil court cases are filed by a private party and the judge decides if the defendant is liable or not, whereas criminal court cases are filed by the government and the jury decides if a guilty defendant is convicted or acquitted if not guilty (Abadinsky, 2014). In criminal court a defendant has certain constitutional protection that he or she would not have in civil court, such as he or she cannot be forced to testify in his or her own criminal trial whereas he or she would be forced to testify in his or her own civil trial (Abadinsky, 2014). Some other constitutional protections in criminal court is that if the defendant cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed to him or her free of charge …show more content…
Another similarity is that both criminal and civil courts have a jury, however the opinion of the jury differs in some states such as my state in New York where a guilty or not guilty vote must be unanimous whereas in a civil case it does not; an agreement by five of the six jurors is enough ("New york