present physical evidence suggesting the defendant committed the crime. Just as a private individual may 
decide that it is not worth the time or effort to file a legal action, the state may decide not to use its 
resources to file criminal charges against a wrongdoer. A victim (a named injured party) cannot force the 
state to prosecute the wrongdoing. Rather, if there is an appropriate civil cause of action–for 
example, wrongful death–the injured party will need to file a civil suit as a plaintiff and seek monetary 
damages against the defendant. 
 Moral Wrongs 
Moral wrongs differ from criminal wrongs. “Moral law attempts to perfect personal character, whereas 
criminal law, in general, is aimed at misbehavior that falls substantially below the norms of the community.” 
1 
There are no codes or statutes governing violations of moral laws in the United States. 
“The Witness” Exercise 
Watch the 2015 Netflix documentary “The Witness” in which Bill Genovese re-examined what was said, heard 
and reported about his sister, Kitty Genovese. This frequently cited examples of a moral wrong involve the story 
of thirty-seven neighbors who purportedly did nothing when “Kitty” Genovese was stabbed to death outside 
their apartment building in New York City in 1964. There are many discrepancies about this story and what the 
neighbors knew, or didn’t know, and what they did, or didn’t do, but the general belief is that they had at least a 
moral obligation to do something (for example, call the police), and by failing to do anything, they committed a 
moral wrong. Ultimately, none of the neighbors had any legal obligation to report the crime or intervene to help 
Ms. Genovese. 
Overlap of Civil, Criminal, and Moral Wrongs 
Sometimes criminal law and civil law overlap and an individual’s action constitute both a violation of 
criminal law and civil law. For example, if Joe punches Sam in the face, Sam may sue Joe civilly for civil 
assault and battery, and the state may also prosecute Joe for punching Sam, a criminal assault and battery. 
Consider the case involving O.J. Simpson. Simpson was first prosecuted in 1994 for killing his ex-wife and 
her friend (the criminal charges of murder). After the criminal trial in which the jury acquitted Simpson, 
the Brown and Goldman families filed a wrongful death action against Simpson for killing  Nicole Brown 
and Ronald Goldman. The civil jury found Simpson responsible and awarded compensatory and punitive 
damages in the amount of $33.5 million dollars. Wrongful death is a type of tort. Torts involve injuries 
inflicted upon a person and are the types of civil claims or civil suits that most resemble criminal wrongs. 
Sometimes criminal behavior has no civil law counterpart. For example, the crime of possessing burglary 
tools does not have a civil law equivalent. Conversely, many civil actions do not violate criminal law. For 
example, civil suits for divorce, wills, or contracts do not have a corresponding criminal wrong. Even though 
there is certainly an overlap between criminal law and civil law, it is not a perfect overlap.  Because there 
is no legal action that can be filed for committing a moral wrong, there really is not any overlap between 
criminal wrongs, civil wrongs, and moral wrongs. 
1. Gardner, T.J. (1985) Criminal Law: Principles and Cases (3rd ed., pp.7). West Publishing Company. 
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