Money laundering means the concealment of the existence, origin, nature or source of money obtained illegally. Federal law prohibits money laundering partially because detecting financial crimes such as tax evasion, drug trafficking and gambling operations can be difficult. Because these ...

White-collar crime is a branch of criminal law that deals with non-violent offenses that are typically characterized by fraud, deceit, concealment or violation of trust. The common denominator among white collar crimes is that their commission does not depend on ...

The Fourth Amendment was drafted and ratified at a time when all of a person’s possessions were tangible. Now, privacy concerns must adapt to technological advances and these concerns also relate to the data stored in cyberspace. They must account ...

Automobile Exception The automobile exception to the warrant requirement arose from the 1925 Supreme Court case of Carroll v. United States.[1] In Carroll, officers pulled over the defendant’s car because they suspected the defendant of bootlegging alcohol. Although there was no visible evidence ...

Courts frown upon searches and seizures outside of the judicial process. Thus, the general principle is that searches or seizures “conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.”[1] Nevertheless, many exceptions ...

Once it is determined that there is a search or seizure for Fourth Amendment purposes, the next inquiry requires a determination regarding whether a warrant is necessary and, if so, what it must contain. The Fourth Amendment provides that “no ...

One of the most cherished yet misunderstood legal principles of American jurisprudence is the Fourth Amendment. Many people do not understand what their Fourth Amendment rights entail, when and how they can assert them and in what circumstances Fourth Amendment ...

Legal defenses fall into two broad categories: justifications and excuses. Both categories of defenses acknowledge that the criminal act was committed. Justification defenses examine the circumstances existing at the time the act was committed, and excuse defenses examine the defendant’s ...

Financial crimes are crimes that are committed to enable the perpetrator to convert money or property for his own use and personal gain. Financial crimes include theft, robbery, burglary and forgery. Sometimes financial crimes also involve additional crimes such as ...

Violent Crimes include murder, manslaughter, rape, arson, and assault. Violent crimes are typically earmarked by the use of force or the threat of force against another. The most serious category of violent crimes is homicide, which means the killing of ...