Elements Of Crime

Question 1

What is the “Act”?

Actus Reus

Answer 1

Needs to be voluntary
* Whooley - Involuntary sneeze
* Hill V Baxter - Swarm of bees

Actus Reus

Question 2

What are the 6 expectations where omission can be the actus reus?

Actus Reus

Answer 2

1. Statutory obligation (Road Traffic Act - Failure to wear seatbelt/Report an accident)
2. Relationship (Gibbons V Proctor - Starve child)
3. Duty taken on (Instan - Neglected aunt)
4. Contractual Duty (Pittwood - Not putting crossing gate down at train station
5. Duty of a public official (Dytham - Police officer not breaking up fight)
6. Dangerous situation (Miller - matress on fire

Actus Reus

Question 3

What is “State of Affairs”?

Answer 3

Just by ‘being somewhere’ you are guilty
(Larsonneur - Illegal immigrant)

Question 4

What is Direct Intention?

Answer 4

Does the D desire the exact outcome
(Mohan)

Question 5

What is Oblique Intention?

Answer 5

Is the D aware that the outcome is a virtually certain consequence of their outcome?
(Woolin)

Question 6

What is Recklessness?

Answer 6

Is the D aware of the risk and takes it anyway
Subjective test - Cunningham

Question 7

When is Causation used?

Answer 7

Only applies to consequence crimes (where the action has lead to an illegal consequence to be a crime e.g ABH, murder etc)

Question 8

What is Factual Causation?

Answer 8

‘But for’ the D’s actions would the consequence have happened anyway?
(White - not factual cause, poison in the tea)
(Pagett - factual cause, used girlfriend as a human shield)

Question 9

What is Legal Causation?

Answer 9

‘De minimis’ - is the D’s act more than a minimal cause of the consequence (Malcherek and Steel)

Question 10

What is an intervening act?

Answer 10

No break in the chain of causation
- Could be from the victim’s own unreasonable act (Roberts - reasonable and Williams - Unreasonable so broke the chain)
- Act of a third party (Smith and Jordan - didn’t break the chain and Jordan, where poor medical treatment broke the train) and ‘act of god’

Question 11

What is Transferred Malice?

Answer 11

The D can transfer malice from their intended victim to their actual victim and still fulfill the MR aspects of the crime

Question 12

Two cases of transferred malice

Answer 12

Mitchell and Latimer - you can transfer intent from person to person
Pembilton - you can’t transfer malice from person to property

Question 13

What is the coincidence and continuing act theory?

Answer 13

The AR and MR have to happen at the same time