Criminal Law Overview

A set of flashcards covering key terms and concepts from criminal law relevant to understanding legal definitions and principles.

General Deterrence

Aimed at deterring society or others from committing crimes by instilling fear of punishment. This includes harsher penalties for crimes, which serve as a warning to potential offenders, promoting public safety and crime reduction.

Specific Deterrence

Aimed at deterring an individual offender from committing future crimes by imposing a punishment that is meant to discourage recidivism. This can involve rehabilitation programs, incarceration, or other interventions tailored to the individual.

Actus Reus

The physical act or conduct that constitutes a criminal offense. This includes not only affirmative actions but also omissions to act when there is a legal duty to do so, such as failing to report a crime.

The act requirement serves a number of closely related objectives: 

• It seeks to assure that the evil intent of the man branded a criminal has been expressed in a manner signifying harm to society; 

• that there is no longer any substantial likelihood that he will be deterred by the threat of sanction;

there has been an identifiable occurrence so that multiple prosecution and punishment may be minimized.

Mens Rea

The mental state or intent that must accompany a criminal act to establish liability.

intentional putting actions, that you know with practical certainty would come about to a particular result, is enough for purpose

• blame and punishment are inappropriate in the absence of choice

• refers to the kind of mental awareness or intention that must accompany the prohibited act, under the terms of the statute defining the offense

• whether the d was aware of the risk or at least should have been aware of the risk

Voluntary Manslaughter

Intentional killing under the heat of passion due to legal and adequate provocation. The law recognizes that emotional disturbance can impair judgment, and a successful defense may significantly reduce the culpability.

Involuntary Manslaughter

Accidental killing due to gross negligence or recklessness, where the offender did not intend to kill but behaved in a manner that led to someone's death. For example, causing a fatal car accident through dangerous driving.

Recklessness

When you are consciously aware of a 1) large and 2) unjustifiable risk but you disregard it or proceed with it. RECKLESSNESS IS NOT INTENT. 

Consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk. This involves understanding that an action could result in harm yet choosing to proceed, such as driving above the speed limit in a crowded area.

Negligence

Failing to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a reasonable person would recognize. This can apply in civil law for torts as well, such as failing to secure a dangerous environment that leads to another's injury.

Felony Murder Doctrine

Holds a felon strictly liable for all killings committed in the course of the felony, regardless of intent or actual involvement in the death. This applies even if the death was unintentional but occurred during the commission of a serious crime, such as robbery.

Strict Liability Crimes

Crimes that do not require proof of mens rea or intent, such as statutory rape or selling alcohol to a minor. The focus is on the act itself rather than the intent.

Mistake of Fact

A defense that negates the mens rea requirement if the defendant was not aware of the facts that constituted the crime, such as mistakenly believing an item is theirs when charged with theft.

Mistake of Law

Generally cannot be claimed as a defense unless based on a reasonable misinterpretation of the law, such as being unaware of a new law that has been enacted.

Depraved Heart Murder

Murder committed with extreme recklessness and indifference to human life, such as engaging in actions that demonstrate a blatant disregard for safety that ultimately leads to someone's death.

Utilitarianism

A moral philosophy that seeks the greatest good for the greatest number, applied in criminal law as a policy justification for laws and punishments aimed at benefiting society as a whole.

Premeditation

The deliberate planning of a crime before committing it, which is necessary for first-degree murder and indicates intention rather than impulsive behavior.

Cooling-Off Period

The time that must pass between provocation and the act of killing for voluntary manslaughter to be considered. Without this period, the killing may be categorized as first-degree murder.

Abandonment Defense

A defense based on the voluntary and complete renouncement of criminal intent before the crime is committed. This shows that the individual intended to commit the crime but later decided to refrain from doing so.

Self-Defense

The right to defend oneself from imminent harm using reasonable force, which must be proportional to the threat. This defense can be invoked in cases where the defender faced an immediate threat to life or safety.

Battered Woman Syndrome

A psychological condition of women who have experienced prolonged domestic violence, affecting their responses to violence. This can be relevant in self-defense cases, where the woman's perception of threat is different from societal norms.

Unconsciousness

complete defense to a charge of criminal homicide.  can exist where the subject physically acts in fact but is not, at the time, conscious of acting. (sleepwalking or hypnosis)

• People who are unconscious due to voluntary acts (like intoxication) cannot claim unconsciousness as a defense. 

Omissions

Law recognizes that under some circumstances the omission of a duty owed by one individual to another, where such omission results in the death of the one to whom the duty is owing, will make the other chargeable with involuntary manslaughter

🡪 MUST BE A LEGAL DUTY IMPOSED BY LAW OR CONTRACT AND NOT A MERE MORAL OBLIGATION.

• The duty must be the immediate and direct cause of the death

4 situations in which omission is a breach of a legal duty

• Where a statute imposes a duty to care for another 

• Where one stands in a certain status relationship to another 

• Where one has assumed a contractual duty to care for another–bodyguards, lifeguard–  

• Where one has voluntarily assumed the care of another and so secluded the helpless person as to prevent other from rendering aid –by leaving him/her in a worse position— 

  • If you carry a person 2 miles toward the hospital and then quit, you’re not guilty. It’s not in a worse position. 

(EXTRA) If you know that your actions have put someone in peril, (then do not to be intentional) then you have a duty to help.

Minimum requirements of Culpability

1. A person is not guilty of an offense unless he acted purposely, knowingly, recklessly or negligently, as the law may require with respect to each material element of the offense. 

Requirements of culpability defined (purposely)

1. If the element involves the nature of his conduct or a result thereof, it is his conscious objective to engage in conduct of that nature or to cause such a result; and 

2. If the element involves the attendant circumstances, he is aware of the existence of such circumstances, or he believes or hopes that they exist.

Requirements of culpability defined (knowingly)

A person acts knowingly with respect to a material element of an offense when: practical certainty:

1. If the element involves the nature of his conduct or the attendant circumstances, he is aware that his conduct is of that nature or that such circumstances exist; and 

2. If the element involves a result of his conduct, he is aware that it is practically certain that his conduct will cause such a result.

Requirements for culpability (recklessly)

1. A person acts recklessly with respect to a material element of an offense when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct. 

The risk must be of such a nature and degree that, considering the nature and purpose of the actor’s conduct and the circumstances known to him, its disregard involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding person would observe in the actor’s situation.

Requirements for culpability (Negligently)

1. 🡪 A person acts negligently with respect to a material element of an offense when he should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct. 

The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the actor’s failure to perceive it, considering the nature and purpose of his conduct and the circumstances known to him, involves a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the actor’s situation. GROSS NEGLIGENCE IS THE MAJORITY. 

Bystander duties

There is no legal obligation to assist anyone

Duties for the family

• There is difficulty in determining in advance where it will lead and what its ultimate contours will be, the boundaries of this duty-based criminal liability will be too amorphous, and too fact-based and based on hindsight, to fit comfortably within our Penal Code. 🡪 Liability on boyfriends/girlfriends would discourage them from showing affection to the children. 

• It will discourage well-meaning relatives, friends of the family and other members of the community from taking an active and intense interest in them, for fear of being caught in a web of criminal liability for the egregious conduct of another. 

A parent on the other hand is the person charged with the duty of care and is required to take steps that are reasonably calculated to achieve success. Otherwise, the meaning of “duty of care” is eviscerated.