Chapter 5 Crime & Criminal Law

The main topic that this chapter talks about is crime and how it is involved in criminal law. So the question is what is considered a crime?

1. An act that violates a criminal law and therefore a punishment is required.
2. The person who committed the crime must have intended to commit a crime
3. And do so without legally acceptable defense or justification.

There are 4 common elements of criminal offenses known as:

1. Actus reas (criminal act), meaning a guilty act, with voluntary body movements, omission in the face of a duty to act, and be in possession of something.
2. Mens Rea (criminal intent), meaning a guilty mind.
   
3. Concurrence is the union of the criminal act (actus reas) and criminal intent (mens rea).
4. Causation is the criminal act that is the cause of the harm
5. Harm is the result of the act, the injury to another. Harm is in all crimes, even victimless crimes.

-Strict liability is the accountability without proof of criminal intent in situations where society deems it fair to do so. Vicarious liability is the accountability from one person to the next, a superior of the first person.
-Inchoate crimes are crimes that occur in preparation for an offense. It means to start or to be put into operation. Three types of inchoate crimes are attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy. Attempt meant that it wasn't a crime if it was just attempted. Solicitation involves the intent to be accompanied by intention to commit a crime. Conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people for the purpose of committing a crime. One other type could also be other parties involved in a crime. There is more than one person that is responsible or held liable for the crime.

I can't relate to these things because, for one, I'm not a criminal, and two, I don't hang around criminals. But I did learn that rape is considered to be a strict liability. When I think of vicarious liability, I think of a gang, in which there are gang members and a leader of who they follow in their footsteps, and if they're caught, the gang members will rat out each other and eventually the leader of the gang will get accounted for the crime they committed. Thats just one way I remember what vicarious liability is. A way I remember inchoate crimes are I think of bank robber's. They don't usually rob a bank by themselves, they are accompanied by another. They plan out how they are going to commit the crime, but then maybe one person backs out of it and doesn't finish what they started.