Our legal system has two different sets of rules to do the same thing, deter people from injuring others by making it costly to do so. O. J. Simpson was first acquitted of the crime of killing his wife and then convicted of the tort of killing his wife. The essential difference between tort and crime is that a tort is treated as an offense against the victim, a crime as an offense against the state. The victim of a tort prosecutes or settles the case, agents of the state prosecute or settle a crime. Legally speaking, I can never be the victim of a crime; if I am robbed, assaulted or murdered the victim is not me but the state of California. If my attacker is Mr. Smith the case will be not 'Friedman vs Smith' but 'People of the state of California vs Smith.' That difference is accompanied by several others. Conviction of a crime is supposed to require proof beyond a reasonable doubt, of a tort by a preponderance of the evidence. The punishment for a tort is a damage payment to the...
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