AOS2 - Chapter 4 Proving Guilt Flashcards
(35 cards)
What is criminal law?
Defines behaviours and conduct that is prohibited and outlines sanctions for people who commit crime.
What is a crime?
- Act that goes against an existing law
- Harmful to an individual/society
- Punishable by law
What is a sanction?
A penalty imposed on a court by a person guilty of a criminal offence e.g. fine, prison sentence
What is a victimless crime?
- A crime without a designated victim
- Still harmful to society
What are the four purposes of criminal law?
- Protecting individuals
- Protecting property
- Protecting society
- Protecting justice
What does the term ‘protecting individuals’ refer to in reference to the purposes of criminal law?
- Aims to protect individuals by establishing crimes and processes to deal with people who commit these crimes
- e.g. Laws that make murder, rape, arson etc. are aimed to protect individuals
What does the term ‘protecting property’ refer to in reference to the purposes of criminal law?
- Aims to protect privately owned and public property
- Includes protecting land, environment and personal goods
- e.g. it is illegal to trespass on, and steal (take without permission) another persons property
What does the term ‘protecting society’ refer to in reference to the purposes of criminal law?
- Aims to protect community as a whole by setting standards and making it clear what behaviour is not tolerated
- Helps to maintain public order and community society
- e.g. Prohibiting drug offences
What does the term ‘protecting justice’ refer to in reference to the purposes of criminal law?
- Promotes justice by providing processes to deal with offenders and enforce the law
- By having state enforce the law, prevents victims (and their close people) from taking the law into their own hands and imposing their own punishment on offender
What is the presumption of innocence?
- Right of an accused individual to be considered innocent/not guilty until proven guilty
- An individual cannot be guilty until charge has been proved beyond reasonable doubt
What does the term ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ refer to?
- Standard of proof (in criminal cases) required for the prosecution to succeed in a case
- In a criminal case, prosecution must prove accused is guilty beyond reasonable doubt (not other way around)
What does the term ‘standard of proof’ refer to?
- Degree/extent/strength to which a case must be proved in court
What are the 8 ways the presumption of innocence is protected?
- Burden of proof is on the prosecution (they have to prove beyond reasonable doubt)
- Standard of proof in a case must be met by the prosecution (criminal case)
- Police officers must reasonably believe a person has committed a crime before arresting them
- A person who has been arrested/charged has the right to apply for and be granted bail (unless good reasons against (e.g. accused of murder)
- Accused has the right to legal representation
- Accused has the right to silence (silence does not mean a sign of guilt)
- As a general rule, accused’s prior convictions cannot be taken into account until sentencing begins
- A person who has been convicted/found guilty has the right to appeal
What are the elements of a crime?
- Actus reus: Latin term meaning ‘guilty act.’ The physical element of a crime
- Mens rea: Latin term meaning ‘guilty mind.’ Mental element of a crime
Actus reus + Mens rea = Crime
What is strict liability?
- The exception to Actus reas and Mens rea
- Generally for a crime to have been committed, both of these must be present
- Strict liability crimes have no mental element (mens rea)
- Prosecution is only required to prove the wrongful action committed by the accused
- e.g. consuming alcohol while driving
What does ‘the age of criminal responsibility’ refer to?
- Minimum age a person must be to be charged of a crime
- Person under 10 cannot be charged with a crime
- Person between 10-13 can be charged if prosecution can prove the child knew what they were doing (Goes against doli incapax)
- Person aged 14+ is considered to be criminally liable for their actions and can be charged
What does the term ‘doli incapax’ mean?
- A Latin term meaning ‘Incapable of evil’
- Refers to principle in Vic that child between 10-13 years is presumed incapable of forming mens rea (guilty mind) because they do not have intellectual/moral capacity to know difference between wrong and right
What are the two categories of criminal offences?
- Summary offences
- Indictable offences
What is a summary offence?
These are less serious criminal offences that can be tried and determined by a magistrate in the Local Court
What is an indictable offence?
More serious criminal offences that are generally heard in the higher District or Supreme Court.
What is a defence to a crime? + e.g. of a defence to a crime
- Justification or lawful reason for a crime
- If successfully argued, defence may lead to accused being found not guilty of the crime or charged with a lesser crime
- An example is self defence. Self defence can be argued in crimes like murder, assault, manslaughter but not in crimes like theft
What is self defence?
- Allows an individual to use force in response to a threat, only when reasonably necessary
When can self defence be used?
Self defence can generally be used in two scenarios…
- If an individual believed their actions were necessary to protect/defend themselves
- If their actions are a reasonable response in the circumstance
Once the defence claims that self-defence was used, burden of proof falls on prosecution to prove (beyond reasonable doubt) that accused did not act in self-defence
What is causation?
The direct relationship between one event and another; relates to element of murder known as ‘killing.’
- Link between what accused did and the victims death
