Essentia Elements of a Crime Flashcards
What are the elements of a crime?
A crime almost always requires proof of:
• A physical act (actus reus)
• A mental state (mens rea), and
• A concurrence of the act and mental state
A crime may also require proof of a result and causation (meaning the act caused the harmful result).
What is a physical act?
A defendant must have either performed a voluntary physical act or failed to act under circumstances imposing a legal duty to act. An act is a bodily movement.
Examples of bodily movements that do not qualify for criminal liability include:
• Conduct that is not the product of the person’s own volition
• A reflexive or convulsive act
• An act performed while unconscious or asleep
What is an omission as an act?
The failure to act gives rise to liability only if:
• There is a legal duty to act (see below)
• The defendant has knowledge of the facts giving rise to the duty to act; and
• It is reasonably possible to perform the duty
A legal duty to act can arise from one of five circumstances:
(1) By statute (for example, the requirement to file a tax return)
(2) By contract (for example, a lifeguard or nurse has a legal duty to act)
(3) The relationship between the parties (for example, a parent/spouse has a duty to protect a child/spouse from harm)
(4) The voluntary assumption of care by the defendant for the victim
(5) The defendant created the peril for the victim
What is possession as an act?
Criminal statutes that penalize the possession of contraband generally require only that the defendant have control of the item for a long enough period to have an opportunity to terminate the possession. Possession does not need to be exclusive to one person, and possession also may be “constructive,” meaning that actual physical control does not need to be proved when the contraband is located in an area within the defendant’s “dominion and control.”
What is the state of mind requirement?
Absent a state of mind requirement in the statute, the defendant must be aware of their possession of the contraband, but they need not be aware of its illegality. However, many statutes add a state of mind element (for example, “knowingly”) to possession crimes. Under such statutes, the defendant ordinarily must know the identity or nature of the item possessed. On the other hand, a defendant may not consciously avoid learning the true nature of the item possessed; knowledge may be inferred from a combination of suspicion and indifference to the truth.
What is specific intent?
A crime may require not only the doing of an act, but also the doing of it with a specific intent or objective. The existence of a specific intent cannot be conclusively imputed from the mere doing of the act, but the manner in which the crime was committed may provide circumstantial evidence of intent. The importance of specific intent crimes is that they will qualify for additional defenses not available for other types of crimes. The major specific intent crimes and the intents they require are as follows:
• Solicitation: Intent to have the person solicited commit the crime
• Conspiracy: Intent to have the crime completed
• Attempt: Intent to complete the crime
• First degree premeditated murder: Premeditated intent to kill
• Assault: Intent to commit a battery
• Larceny: Intent to permanently deprive the other of their interest in the property taken
• Embezzlement: Intent to defraud
• False pretenses: Intent to defraud
• Robbery: Intent to permanently deprive the other of their interest in the property taken
• Burglary: Intent to commit a felony in the dwelling
• Forgery: Intent to defraud Specific intent crimes mnemonic: Students Can Always Fake A Laugh, Even For Ridiculous Bar Facts.
What is the malice needed for common law murder and arson?
The intent necessary for malice crimes (common law murder and arson) requires a reckless disregard of an obvious or high risk that the particular harmful result will occur. Defenses to specific intent crimes (such as voluntary intoxication) do not apply to malice crimes.
What is general intent?
General intent is the big catch-all category. All crimes not so far mentioned are general intent crimes unless they qualify for strict liability. General intent means the defendant has an awareness of all factors constituting the crime; in other words, the defendant must be aware that they are acting in the proscribed way and that any required attendant circumstances exist. The defendant does not have to be certain that all the circumstances exist; it is sufficient that they are aware of a high likelihood that they will occur.
a. Inference of Intent from Act
A jury may infer the required general intent merely from the doing of the act.
What are strict liability offenses ?
A strict liability or public welfare offense is one that does not require awareness of all of the factors constituting the crime; that is, the defendant can be found guilty from the mere fact that they committed the act. Common strict liability offenses are selling liquor to minors and statutory rape. The importance of strict liability on the bar exam is that defenses that negate state of mind, such as mistake of fact, are not available.
What is the model penal code analysis of fault?
The M.P.C. eliminates the common law distinctions between general and specific intent and adopts the following categories of intent:
a. Purposely, Knowingly, or Recklessly
When a statute requires that the defendant act purposely, knowingly, or recklessly, a subjective standard is used.
Purposely
A person acts purposely when their conscious object is to engage in certain conduct or cause a certain result.
Knowingly
A person acts knowingly with respect to the nature of their conduct when they are aware that their conduct is of a particular nature or that certain circumstances exist. Also, the person is deemed to be aware of these circumstances when they are aware of a high probability that they exist and deliberately avoid learning the truth. The person acts knowingly with respect to the result of their conduct when they know that their conduct will necessarily or very likely cause a particular result.
Recklessly
A person acts recklessly when they consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk that circumstances exist or that a prohibited result will follow, and this disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in that situation. Recklessness involves both objective (“unjustifiable risk”) and subjective (“awareness”) elements.
b. Negligence
A person acts negligently when they fail to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk, where such failure is a substantial deviation from the standard of care. To determine whether a person acted negligently, an objective standard is used. However, it is not just the reasonable person standard that is used in torts. The defendant must have taken a very unreasonable risk.
What are vicarious liability offenses?
A vicarious liability offense is one in which a person without personal fault may nevertheless be held liable for the criminal conduct of another (usually an employee). The trend is to limit vicarious liability to regulatory crimes and to limit punishment to fines.
What is enterprise liability?
At common law, a corporation does not have capacity to commit crimes. Under modern statutes, corporations may be held liable for an act performed by: (1) an agent of the corporation acting within the scope of their office or employment; or (2) a corporate agent high enough in hierarchy to presume their acts reflect corporate policy.
What is transferred intent?
The defendant can be liable under the doctrine of transferred intent when they intend the harm that is actually caused, but to a different victim or object. Defenses and mitigating circumstances may also usually be transferred. The doctrine of transferred intent applies to homicide, battery, and arson. It does not apply to attempt.
What is the concurrence of mental fault with physical act?
The defendant must have had the intent necessary for the crime at the time they committed the act constituting the crime, and the intent must have prompted the act. For example, if D is driving to V’s house to kill him, D will lack the necessary concurrence for murder if D accidentally runs V over before reaching the house.
What is causation?
Some crimes (such as homicide) require result and causation. Thus, when a crime is defined to require not merely conduct but also a specified result (such as death), the defendant’s conduct must be both the cause-in-fact and the proximate cause of the specified result.
