Every society faces the fundamental problem of achieving social control that protects people's lives and property, as well as establishing desirable levels of order, agreement, safety, and courtesy in society. Societies, therefore, have developed informal methods of achieving this control which include family structures, religious norms and precepts. Law is instead configured as a formal method of social control. Law is therefore said to be a set of rules prescribed and implemented by the government to regulate and protect society. Some forms of behavior are prohibited, and sanctions are imposed on those who engage in the prohibited conduct. The branch of law that makes such conduct illegal is called criminal law. In a democratic society one cannot be convicted of a crime without having committed a crime that is contrary to the law and requires a penalty. Criminal law provides substantive and procedural rules, both of which govern the functioning of the criminal justice system. The substantive rules prohibit certain behaviors and define the crime as well as establishing the sanctions and their parameterization. Procedural rules, on the other hand, control the application of substantive law, determine guilt and the punishment to be inflicted on the guilty party. This article explores the criminal trial and the procedural steps in a criminal trial. Criminal Trial According to John (2010, p.16), there are basic procedural steps common to all prosecutions for a crime, although some differ considerably between jurisdictions. Law enforcement agencies arrest, question people in custody and then conduct searches and seizures in every jurisdiction. This is followed by formal notification to the defendants, the charges against them and an opportunity is g...... middle of document ......010, p.713). The main ones include capital punishment, which is a death sentence, and corporal punishment, which inflicts pain or injury on one's body. The cruel and unusual one involves the physical beating and torture of a prisoner (John, 2010). Conclusion Crimes such as assault, sexual violence and imprisonment have formed a stable basis used to prosecute people whose behaviors have offended the basic norms of a society over the centuries. . To meet the cultural needs of a dynamic society, the law must be changed and enforced. There should also be fair administration of justice and orderly trials. To achieve this, honesty and integrity of the occupants of authority are a requirement. To maintain the safety and usefulness of the law, the imprisonment of criminals must be guaranteed by society. References John MS Criminal Law and Procedure, (2010). Cengage Learning. Belmont, United States.