Many acts in the United States constitute a crime, and speaking generally, a crime may be an act that violates another party’s property, finances, physical or sexual well-being, and even their life. Crimes vary widely, but they may involve such acts as traumatic and unwanted sexual contact, abusing dangerous drugs, damaging property, stealing money, operating a car or truck while drunk or high on drugs, and more. Some of these crimes are among the most common criminal acts in the United States, such as drug possession charges, sex crimes, and more. When a person is accused of a sex crime, for example, he or she may want to reach out to criminal defense attorneys and their law firms to build their case for court. Being accused of a sex crime is nothing to take lightly, and anyone who is accused of a sex crime may want legal assistance.
Sex Crimes
What is a sex crime? Most often, sex crimes are those that involve unwanted (and often traumatic) sexual contact or behavior between the perpetrator and a victim. A common paradigm for this is a larger man sexually abusing a woman, and while this represents many cases, there are other variants as well, and all of them constitute a sex crime. Men sometimes sexually abuse one another, whether or not in a prison environment, and in some cases, women may sexually abuse men or each other. One general myth about sexual abuse is that a person will stalk and then assault a total stranger, but in many cases, the perpetrator and victim are in fact acquaintances of each other, or even friends or lovers (and in rare cases, family members). Such crimes may take place in a domestic setting or at a college campus, for example. Colleges often have to deal with sexual crimes on campus, and not all of them take the necessary measures to punish perpetrators or prevent such crimes in the future.
If someone is accused of a sex crime, they will face a court case and may want to hire legal help to represent them. Various criminal defense law firms exist a cross the United States today, and the entire firm or some of the lawyers working there may specialize in certain crime types. A person accused of a sex crime may look up such a law firm and find an attorney whose skills, experience, and personality are to their liking, and hire them. Together, they will build a case for court. Nothing is being guaranteed here, but someone with legal assistance may have some charges dismissed or have punishments for other charges exchanged for lighter ones.
Drinking and Driving
Sexual misconduct is not the only sort of crime a person may commit. Many Americans illegally drive and drink, and there are reasons why this is punished by law. As the law defines it, drunk driving is when a motor vehicle operator’s BAC, or blood alcohol content, is 0.08% or higher. Some states have a lower threshold than that to define drunk driving, in fact. And even if the drunk driver never actually causes an accident or injures another party, drunk driving alone is a serious crime and police officers may pull over and arrest any drunk driver that they find on the roads. Drunk drivers have impaired coordination, judgment, and reflexes, and drunk drivers may be easy to spot on the road. They may not be as easy to avoid, however, and drunk driving is likely to cause an accident. Even teenagers have been known to abuse alcohol and then operate a motor vehicle, and many teenagers are killed because of this annually.
When someone faces drunk driving charges (whether or not an accident occurred), they may want to turn to criminal defense law firms for assistance. Many such law firms may exist, seeing how drunk driving is a common occurrence in the United States today. Nothing can be guaranteed here, but an effective criminal defense case may involve having some charges dismissed or even having the punishments for other charges made lighter. Rather than facing prison, a convict may have an engine interlock device put into their car. Each time before driving, that person must submit a breath sample to prove that they haven’t been drinking.