Crimes and Vocab

Question 1

Actus Reus

Answer 1

A voluntary physical act.

Question 2

Mens Rea

Answer 2

The requisite mental state.

Breaks down into the following categories:
Specific Intent (intent to do the crime)
General Intent (intent to do the elements of the crime)
Malice
Strict Liability

Question 3

Specific Intent

Answer 3

Doing an act with a specific objective or intent, i.e., you do an act in order to achieve a particular result. The existence of specific intent cannot be conclusively proven by doing the act itself but rather the prosecution needs to show evidence of the specific intent to achieve a result.

Question 4

General Intent Crimes

Answer 4

Crimes that only require an awareness of the factors constituting the crime. The defendant does not need to intend the consequences that result

Question 5

Malice

Answer 5

Reckless disregard for the obvious or high risk that a particular harmful result would occur.

Question 6

Strict Liability

Answer 6

Do not require awareness of the elements constituting a crime. Generally, they deal with public health or safety. (Regulations pertaining to firearms or traffic regulations are common examples.)

Question 7

Model Penal Code Mens Rea

Answer 7

Purposefully (defendant has the desire to engage in the conduct or cause a certain result)

Knowingly (defendant is aware of the nature of the conduct or that certain circumstances exist)

Recklessly (defendant is aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a certain result will occur and he consciously disregards that risk)

Negligenty (defendant should have been aware of the substantial and unjustifiable risk that a certain result will occur)

Question 8

Principal

Answer 8

One who has the requisite mental state and actually engages in the act or omission that causes the criminal result.

Question 9

Accomplice

Answer 9

One who has the intent to assist the principal, has the intent that the crime be committed, and actually aids, counsels, or encourages the principal before or during the commission of the crime. Under the modern approach, all principals and accomplices can be found guilty of the criminal offense.

Question 10

Accessory After the Fact

Answer 10

One who receives, relieves, comforts, or assists another knowing that the person has committed a felony, in order to help the felon escape arrest, trial, or conviction. Accessories after the fact are usually charged with a crime called “harboring a fugitive” or “obstructing justice.”

Question 11

Categories of Crimes

Answer 11

Inchoate offenses, offenses against the person, and offenses against property (which includes crimes against both personal property and habitation).

Question 12

Inchoate Offenses

Answer 12

Preparatory offenses, i.e., offenses committed prior to and in preparation for what may be a more serious offense. They include: solicitation, attempt, and conspiracy. They can be complete offenses (crimes in themselves) even if the act to be done (e.g., the subject of the conspiracy) has not yet been completed.

Question 13

Solicitation

Answer 13

Inciting, counseling, advising, inducing, urging, or commanding another to commit a crime with the specific intent that the person solicited commit the crime.The crime is complete when the solicitation occurs; the person solicited does not have to actually do anything (e.g., she does not have to agree to commit the crime).

Question 14

Conspiracy

Answer 14

An agreement between two or more people,
with an intent to enter into an agreement,
and an intent to achieve the criminal objectives of that agreement.

The majority of states also require that there must be some overt act involved, but needn’t be the crime itself, it can be mere preparation for the crime (i.e. going to buy bullets for the murder).

Question 15

Attempt

Answer 15

An act that is done with intent to commit a crime but that falls short of completing the crime. The law requires an overt act here too, but it must be something beyond the mere preparation required for conspiracy.

Question 16

Crimes Against People

Answer 16

Battery
Assault
False Imprisonment
Homicide (Murder, Voluntary Manslaughter, and Involuntary Manslaughter)
Sex crimes (rape, statutory rape, adultery, incest, seduction, and bigamy),
Kidnapping
Mayhem (dismemberment)

Question 17

Battery (Criminal)

Answer 17

Unlawful application of force to another person resulting in bodily injury or an offensive touching.

Question 18

Assault (Criminal)

Answer 18

Either the attempt to commit battery or the intentional creation of reasonable apprehension of imminent bodily harm.

Question 19

False Imprisonment (Criminal)

Answer 19

Unlawful confinement of a person without his valid consent.

Question 20

Murder

Answer 20

The unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.

Question 21

Malice aforethought

Answer 21

Can be shown through:

Intent to Kill (aka express malice)
Intent to Inflict Great Bodilly Injury
Reckless Indifference to an Unjustifiably High Risk to Human Life (aka abandoned and malignant heart)
Intent to Commit a Felony (felony murder rule)

Question 22

Felony Murder

Answer 22

An unintentional killing that results from the commission or the attempted commission of a serious or inherently dangerous felony.

(For the bar exam, inherently dangerous felonies tend to be burglary, arson, rape, robbery, and kidnapping.)

Question 23

Reckless Indifference to an Unjustifiably High Risk to Human Life

Answer 23

Defendant simply does not care about who is hurt as a result of his actions (e.g., he fires a gun into a crowded theater or church without aiming for anyone in particular)

Question 24

Voluntary Manslaughter

Answer 24

A killing that would otherwise be murder but is distinguishable by the existence of adequate provocation.

Question 25

Provocation

Answer 25

It would arouse a sudden and intense passion,
in the mind of an ordinary person such that he would lose self-control,
the defendant was in fact so provoked,
there was not sufficient time for a reasonable person to cool off,
and the defendant did not actually cool off.

Question 26

Involuntary Manslaughter

Answer 26

Includes two different categories of killings—those committed with criminal negligence (or recklessness, using the MPC language) or during the commission of a criminal act (a misdemeanor or a felony not included in the felony murder rule).

Question 27

Crimes against Personal Property and Habitation

Answer 27

Includes larceny, embezzlement, false pretenses, and robbery.

Question 28

Common Law Larcency

Answer 28

The asportation (taking and carrying away) 
of the tangible personal property of another with possession, 
by trespass (meaning without consent), 
with the intent to permanently deprive that person of his interest in the property (i.e., you have the intent to steal).

Remember that consent obtained via fraud is not valid

Question 29

Asportation

Answer 29

Taking and carrying away

Question 30

Robbery

Answer 30

The taking of the personal property of another,
from the other’s person or presence,
by force or threat of immediate death/physical injury to the victim (or a member of his family or someone in the victim’s presence),
with the intent to permanently deprive that person of his interest in the property.

Question 31

False Pretenses

Answer 31

Obtaining title to the personal property of another by an intentional false statement of a past or existing fact with the intent to defraud another.

Question 32

Larceny by Trick

Answer 32

Obtaining possession of personal property of another by an intentional false statement of a past or existing fact with the intent to defraud another.

Question 33

Embezzlement

Answer 33

The fraudulent conversion of personal property of another by a person in lawful possession of that property. It is different from larceny, because in larceny the defendant has no possessory interest in the personal property—he is taking it from someone else. In embezzlement, the defendant is in rightful possession of the personal property in question. Normally this happens when you have a bailment situation.

Question 34

Bailment

Answer 34

Usually when one person delivers the property to another person for some purpose in exchange for payment, with the understanding that the property will be returned.

Question 35

Crimes Against Dwellings

Answer 35

Burglary
Breaking and Entering
Arson

Question 36

Burglary

Answer 36

A breaking and entering of a dwelling place of another at nighttime with the intent to commit a felony in the structure.

The intent to commit a felony must be premeditated, if the defendant breaks in and then decides to steal, its not a burglary.

Question 37

“breaking and entering”

Answer 37

The defendant creates an entry by force, fraud, or intimidation and must either put a part of his body through that opening or put the instruments of the crime through the opening.

Question 38

Arson

Answer 38

The malicious (intentional or with reckless disregard) burning of the dwelling of another. The only trick you have to look for here is to make sure there is actual damage to the structure. It does not have to be outright destruction of the home, but it has to be more than smoke or heat damage – common law looks for charring (burning/blackening or crispy bits, if you will).