Criminal Law: Chapters 7-13

Flashcards covering parties to crime, inchoate offenses, crimes against persons, property crimes, public order offenses, and crimes against the state based on criminal law lecture notes.

Complicity

Establishes when you can be criminally liable for someone else’s conduct; applies criminal liability to accomplices and accessories.

Vicarious Liability

Establishes when a party can be criminally liable for someone else’s conduct because of a relationship; transfers criminal conduct from one party to another.

Accomplice Liability

Liability that attaches for participation before and during a crime; all participants are prosecuted for the crime itself and receive the same punishment as the person who committed it.

Accomplice Actus Reus

The requirement that the defendant took some positive act in aid of the commission of the offense, such as serving as a lookout or providing weapons.

Mere Presence Rule

A rule stating that a person’s presence at and flight from a crime scene are not enough to satisfy the actus reus element of accomplice liability, as established in U.S. v. Bailey (1969).

Accessory Liability

Liability that attaches for participation after crimes are committed; usually prosecuted as a minor offense other than the crime itself, such as obstructing justice.

Respondeat Superior

A Latin phrase meaning 'Let the master answer'; a doctrine where an employer or corporation may be liable for the wrongs committed by an employee or agent.

Inchoate Offenses

From the Latin 'to begin'; crimes that satisfy the mens rea of purpose but lack enough steps to complete the intended crime.

Criminal Attempt

The crime of trying but failing to commit an intended offense.

Criminal Conspiracy

The crime of making an agreement with one or more people to commit a crime.

Criminal Solicitation

The crime of trying to get someone else to commit a offense, regardless of whether the other person agrees or goes through with it.

All But the Last Act Test

The strictest rule for attempt actus reus, requiring the defendant to have accomplished all necessary acts except the one that directly causes the criminal harm.

Unequivocality Test

Also called the res ipsa loquitur test; it asks whether an ordinary person observing the acts would believe the defendant was determined to commit the crime.

Legal Impossibility

An affirmative defense that occurs when actors intend to commit a crime and do everything they can, but the criminal law does not actually ban the act they attempted.

Pinkerton Rule

A rule established in Pinkerton v. U.S. (1946) stating that the crime of conspiracy and the crime the conspirators agree to commit are separate offenses.

Wheel Conspiracies

Large-scale conspiracies where one or more central defendants (the hub) participate in every transaction, while others (spokes) participate in only one.

Chain Conspiracies

Large-scale conspiracies where participants handle the same commodity at different points (manufacture, distribution, sale) but may not know those at the other end of the chain.

Murder

The act of killing a person with 'malice aforethought.'

Manslaughter

The act of killing a person without 'malice aforethought.'

First-Degree Murder

A willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing; it is the only crime for which the death penalty can be used in the United States.

Deadly Weapon Doctrine

The legal presumption that one who intentionally uses a deadly weapon on another person and kills them has formed the intent to kill.

Depraved Heart Murder

An unintentional but extremely reckless murder where the circumstances show an 'abandoned and malignant heart.'

Felony Murder Rule

A doctrine stating that unintentional deaths occurring during the commission of certain inherently dangerous felonies are considered murders.

Voluntary Manslaughter

The unlawful killing of another upon a 'sudden heat' triggered by adequate provocation.

Adequate Provocation

A trigger the law recognizes that would provoke a reasonable person and actually provoked the defendant to kill in a heat of passion.

Objective Cooling Off Test

A test to determine if a reasonable person under the same circumstances would have had enough time to collect themselves between the provocation and the killing.

Involuntary Manslaughter

An unintentional killing by a voluntary act or omission, often involving criminal negligence or 'regular' recklessness.

Rape Shield Laws

Procedural rules that prohibit the introduction of a victim’s sexual history as evidence during a trial.

Extrinsic Force

A requirement in some rape statutes that physical effort beyond what is needed for unconsented penetration was exerted.

Intrinsic Force

A rule holding that the 'force' requirement in rape is satisfied simply by the physical effort required to penetrate without consent.

Statutory Rape

Sexual intercourse with a person under the age of consent; generally treated as a strict liability offense.

Battery

Unwanted and unjustified offensive touching.

Assault

An attempt to commit battery or the intentional scaring of another by putting them in fear of an immediate battery.

Stalking

Intentionally scaring another person through a course of conduct involving following, tormenting, or harassing.

Kidnapping

The taking and carrying away (asportation) of another person with the specific intent to deprive them of their personal liberty.

False Imprisonment

The crime of compelling a person to remain where they do not wish to remain; it lacks the asportation requirement found in kidnapping.

Larceny

The taking and carrying away of a person’s property without force and with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of it.

Conversion

Wrongfully possessing or disposing of someone else’s property as if it were your own.

Embezzlement

The crime of lawfully gaining possession of property and later converting it to one’s own use.

Obtaining Property by False Pretenses

Also called theft by deceit; making false representations concerning facts with the intent to defraud and obtain property.

Theft

A consolidated offense in modern jurisdictions that includes larceny, embezzlement, and false pretenses.

Ponzi Schemes

Fraudulent investment operations that pay returns to investors from their own money or money from new investors rather than actual profit.

Robbery

Theft accomplished by force, violence, or intimidation.

Receiving Stolen Property (RSP)

Benefitting from the theft of another's property by receiving and controlling it while knowing or having reason to know it was stolen.

Arson

The act of damaging or destroying buildings by setting them on fire.

Criminal Mischief

The crime of damaging or destroying personal (tangible) property by fire, explosives, or other dangerous acts.

Burglary

Breaking and entering an occupied structure with the intent to commit a crime inside.

Criminal Trespass

The unwanted and unauthorized invasion of another person's property; unlike burglary, it does not require intent to commit a crime therein.

Broken Windows Theory

A theory suggesting that failure to sanction minor 'quality-of-life' crimes creates a situation where people are emboldened to commit major crimes.

Panhandling

Stopping people on the street to ask for food or money; laws regulating it must pass the 'time, place, and manner' test.

Treason

The only crime defined in the U.S. Constitution, consisting of levying war against the U.S. or giving aid and comfort to its enemies.

Sedition

The crime of advocating the violent overthrow of the government through speech, writing, or conspiracy.

Sabotage

The crime of damaging or destroying property to hinder national defense or war preparations during an emergency.

Espionage

The crime of spying for the enemy or turning over national defense information to a foreign country.