Criminal law may be broadly conceived as that body of law which defines criminal offenses, establishes procedures for the apprehension, charging, and trial of suspected offenders and which fixes penalties and modes of treatment applicable to convicted offenders. All organized societies display a body of rules, norms or customs tending to protect the security of individual interests and the survival of the group. The distinction between the criminal law and other forms of social control, however, is ordinarily not sharply drawn in primitive societies. Even in modern Anglo-American law the distinction between criminal law and tort law defies wholly satisfactory definition. For most practical purposes, however, it is sufficient to say that a tort is a private injury and that the purpose of a tort suit is primarily to obtain compensation from the wrongdoer for injuries sustained by the victim. A crime, on the other hand, even though it may (and ordinarily does)
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