CRIME AND CRIMINAL

A crime or offences are acts or omissions punishable by the state. As a general rule an act or omission is not a crime unless it definition and prescribed punishment for it are contained in a written law. In Taiwo Aoko v Fagbemi, a conviction based on the offence of adultery in the customary court was quashed on the ground that the offence is not defined nor the penalty prescribed in a written law. Criminal proceedings are mainly instituted to punish wrongdoers, and it is the state that controls such proceedings, although private persons are sometimes allowed to institute them.

From the above definition, one can infer that for an act or omission to be called a crime it must be defined and prescribed by the state.

Any act or omission which is not defined and prescribe is not a crime even if it looks absurd to the divine law or the customary law. I happen to come from a jurisdiction where the customary law is relegated to the back seat. If a custom should proclaim an act or omission as crime, that act or omission must be in consonance with the written legislative provision.

We have the law divided into two categories, Jux feranda, and lex Lata.

Jux feranda: laws as it ought to be. These laws are, divine law, eternal law and natural law. These set of laws has been in existence before man and will remain after man. They are the laws has stipulated by nature and the supreme being. These laws never change, they will remain as long as the earth exists.

Lex Lata: laws as it is. We call this, the human positive law. Man make laws to conform to their ways of reasoning. That is the reason why in most instances the laws are made by the strong and conformance is exihibited by the feeble. The society man finds themselves is never static this is why most man made law changes with the dynamism of the society.

If we should juxtapose both classes of law we can easily deduce it application to crime. In the case of the natural law the rule has remained in existence but for the positive law take cognizance of some logical reasoning of man into it application which is a focal reason why we have an act or omission as a crime in a certain jurisdiction and that same act or omission is a norm in another jurisdiction. Human has never passed the test of infallibility there must always be a lacuna in all human endeavors.

A criminal is a person who violates a defined and prescribed act or omission. The laws applicable to a person termed a criminal must be defined and punishment must be prescribed in a written law.

The criminal in any jurisdiction whether inquisitorial or adversarial judicial setting still has some right bestowed on them by nature, these are:

Nemo judex incausasua- it is a maxim which means you can not be a judge in your own course.

Audi alterem patem- It a maxim which states that you do not condemn unheard.

The principal function of natural justice is to promote fair hearing in all ramifications.

Anywhere you find yourself steer clear crime. Aside the state laws, if we should put the natural law into usage, I believe we all know what is right and what is wrong. Do to others what you want for yourself. love is the principal law, but you must first love yourself, you can't give what you don't have. If there can be love among humans crime will surely go extinct. Let's live in love.
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_{Reference
An introduction to Nigerian law. Victor O. Fasanya. chapter one, page 5.}