This table summarizes some of the basic differences between crimes and torts, or between criminal law and tort law. We'll elaborate on most of these differences in class.

	Crimes	Torts
immediate purpose	punishment of criminal	compensation of victim
balance of defendant's wrong and victim's injury	emphasis on df's moral wrong, not victim's injury	emphasis on victim's injury, not df's moral wrong
theory of offense	offense to all society; public interest	only victim injured; private interest only
initiating party	the state, "the people", represented by prosecutor	the victim, plaintiff
verb/noun	try/trial, or prosecute/prosecution	sue/suit
defendant's right to a jury trial	yes (6th Amendment)	only sometimes (7th Amendment)
defendant's right to counsel	yes	no
deadline on action	statute of limitations	laches; equitable estoppel; sometimes a statute of limitations
category of responsibility	guilt	liability
standard of proof	"beyond a reasonable doubt"	"by a preponderance of the evidence"
judge may direct a verdict of guilty	no	yes
fate of convicted defendant	suffers punishment (fine, imprisonment, death)	pays compensatory damages, sometimes punitive damages; sometimes is enjoined
fate of victim	ignored	compensated
permissible appeals	by defendant only (state barred by double jeopardy)	by defendant or plaintiff
defendant's testimony	may not be compelled (privilege against self-incrimination)	may be compelled
affirmative defenses	excuse, justification	immunity, consent, privilege (and others)
effect of victim consent, forgiveness, condonation	consent rarely a defense	consent always a defense
general domain of law	criminal	civil
form of law	statute (mostly)	case law, common law (mostly)
primary lawmaker	legislature	court
accountability of lawmaker	elected	usually appointed, sometimes for life
role of precedent	only for interpreting statute	for substance
availability, prior notice, promulgation of law	always written; clarity and prior notice important	unwritten except as cases after the fact
retroactivity of law	no ex post facto; usually no "common law crimes"	may be ex post facto

This list of differences should not obscure the similarities between criminal law and tort law. For example, both kinds of law:

• must be consistent with the state and federal constitutions
• are applied and interpreted by courts
• use juries for questions of fact
• have similar appeal routes for convicted defendants
• have procedural and substantive dimensions
• may apply to the very same act (both kinds of legal action may proceed simultaneously)
• may use the same legal concepts (battery is both a crime and tort; punitive damages resemble criminal fines; contempt of court can be criminal or civil).

This file is an electronic hand-out for the course, Crimes & Torts.