2. Actus Reus: The Conduct Element

Criminal Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 66-128
Author(s):  
Jonathan Herring

The actus reus is a central aspect of criminal law that defines the harm done to the victim and the wrong performed by the defendant. In many cases this involves proof that the defendant caused a particular result. This chapter begins by distinguishing the component elements of a crime. It then discusses the voluntary act ‘requirement’; causation; classification of offences; the need for a voluntary act; omissions; and seeking a coherent approach to causation.

Author(s):  
Jonathan Herring

The actus reus is a central aspect of criminal law that defines the harm done to the victim and the wrong performed by the defendant. In many cases this involves proof that the defendant caused a particular result. This chapter begins by distinguishing the component elements of a crime. It then discusses the voluntary act ‘requirement’; causation; classification of offences; the need for a voluntary act; omissions; and seeking a coherent approach to causation.


Author(s):  
Janet Loveless ◽  
Mischa Allen ◽  
Caroline Derry

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about the principles and structure of criminal law. It begins with a discussion on the definition of crime and explains the fundamental principles of criminal law such as Actus Reus and mens rea, the source of criminal law in general, and procedures involved in a criminal trial as distinct from civil proceedings. The chapter explores the four main reasons for criminalising conduct, the burden of proof in criminal proceedings and the classification of crimes and courts. It discusses four theories concerning criminal punishment, reviews several recent cases, and evaluates the criminal justice system in Great Britain based on statistics and public perception.


Author(s):  
Jeremy Horder

This chapter focuses on the ‘general part’ of the criminal law—the rules and principles of the criminal law whose importance and application can be analysed and debated without necessarily referring to a specific crime. It first examines the limits of the notion of involuntary conduct. It then looks at various challenges to the ‘voluntary act’ requirement—where is the act if the law criminalizes the occurrence of a state of affairs, or mere possession? Next, it considers how the voluntary act requirement relates to crimes of omission. This is followed by discussions of causation and the circumstances in which conduct may be recognized as justifiable.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Janet Loveless ◽  
Mischa Allen ◽  
Caroline Derry

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about the principles and structure of criminal law. It begins with a discussion on the definition of crime and explains the fundamental principles of criminal law such as actus reus and mens rea, the source of criminal law in general, and procedures involved in a criminal trial as distinct from civil proceedings. The chapter explores the four main reasons for criminalising conduct, the burden of proof in criminal proceedings and the classification of crimes and courts. It discusses four theories concerning criminal punishment, reviews several recent cases, and evaluates the criminal justice system in Great Britain based on statistics and public perception.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrii Kofanov ◽  
Olena Kofanova
Keyword(s):  

Jurnal Hukum ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1592
Author(s):  
Hanafi Amrani

AbstrakArtikel ini membahas dua permasalahan pokok: pertama, kriteria yang digunakan oleh pembentuk undang-undang di bidang politik dalam menetapkan suatu perbuatan sebagai perbuatan pidana (kriminalisasi); dan kedua, fungsi sanksi pidana dalam undang-undang di bidang politik. Terkait dengan kriminalisasi, undang-undang di bidang politik yang termasuk ke dalam hukum administrasi, maka pertimbangan dari pembuat undang-undang tentu saja tidak sekedar kriminalisasi sebagaimana diatur dalam ketentuan hukum pidana dalam arti sebenarnya. Hal tersebut disebabkan adanya pertimbangan-pertimbangan tertentu. Pertama, perbuatan yang dilarang dalam hukum pidana administrasi lebih berorientasi pada perbuatan yang bersifat mala prohibita, sedangkan dalam ketentuan hukum pidana yang sesungguhnya berorientasi pada perbuatan yang bersifat mala in se. Kedua, sebagai konsekuensi dari adanya penggolongan dua kategori kejahatan tersebut, maka pertimbangan yang dijadikan acuan juga akan berbeda. Untuk yang pertama (mala prohibita), sanksi pidana itu dibutuhkan untuk menjamin ditegakkannya hukum administrasi tersebut. Dalam hal ini sanksi pidana berfungsi sebagai pengendali dan pengontrol tingkah laku individu untuk mencapai suatu keadaan yang diinginkan. Sedangkan untuk yang kedua (mala in se), fungsi hukum pidana dan sanksi pidana lebih berorientasi pada melindungi dan mempertahankan nilai-nilai moral yang tertanam di masyarakat tempat di mana hukum itu diberlakukan atau ditegakkan. Kata Kunci: Kebijakan, Kriminalisasi, Undang-Undang PolitikThis article discusses two main problems: firstly, the criteria used by the legislators in the field of politics in determining an act as a criminal act (criminalization); secondly, the function of criminal sanctions in legislation in the field of politics. Associated with criminalization, legislation in the field of politics that is included in administrative law, the consideration of the legislators of course not just criminalization as stipulated in the provisions of criminal law in the true sense. This is due to certain considerations. Firstly, the act which is forbidden in the administration of criminal law is more oriented to act is malum prohibitum offences, whereas in actual criminal law provisions in the act are mala in se offences. Secondly, as a consequence of the existence of two categories of classification of the crime, then consideration will also vary as a reference. For the first (mala prohibita), criminal sanctions are needed to ensure the enforcement of the administrative law. In this case the criminal sanction serves as controller and controlling the behavior of individuals to achieve a desired state. As for the second (mala in se), the function of criminal law and criminal sanctions is more oriented to protect and maintain the moral values that are embedded in a society where the law was enacted or enforced.


2021 ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Ruslan G. Aslanyan

The article examines the historical aspects of the formation and development of a Special part of the Russian Criminal Law. The analysis is based on legal monuments of the X - beginning of the XX century and literary sources. The research is developing in three main directions: a) the ratio of the law and other forms of expression of criminal law prescriptions (here the process of transition from customs to the law as the only means of expressing criminal law norms is revealed); 2) types and system of criminal laws (here the transition from intersectoral laws to the formation of a specialized Criminal Code is shown); 3) systematization of criminal law regulations (here the issues of classification of crimes and structuring of criminal law institutions are revealed). As the main result, it is summarized that by the beginning of the XX century, the idea of creating an independent criminal law was not only implemented in the country, but also, firstly, the principle of its pandect structure was put into practice, suggesting the isolation of its Special part in the structure of the Code and, secondly, the principle of building the most Special part, based on the institutional structure of the industry and the content of goods protected by law.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-82
Author(s):  
Vadim V. Khilyuta

Criminal law institutions and basic concepts are being reformatted. This work focuses on the objective signs of theft and the mode of activity - the seizure of someone elses property. The existing law enforcement practice and the current recommendations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the qualification of thefts are critically perceived. The article focuses on provisions of the general theory of criminal law on the classification of theft. This study aims to substantiate the need for correlation of objective signs of theft in relation to the expansion of the boundaries of the object of theft and the method of activity. During the study, traditional methods of the sociolegal and formal-dogmatic analysis were used: documentary, comparative-legal, analytical, systemic, and logical. On the basis of the results of the study, adjustments were made to understand the objective side of theft and expand the boundaries of the method of action. The seizure of other peoples property cannot characterize the mechanism of embezzlement and reflect all aspects of qualification. The prospect of identifying theft with the extraction (receipt) of property benefits carries the risk of erasing the boundaries between embezzlement and other economic crimes. The author proposes models for the development of criminal legislation to establish criminal liability for crimes against property (property crimes). To modify the object of theft, its purpose, and mode of activity, the author proposes to identify a new group of crimes (crimes against the circulation of objects of civil rights) that would cover illegal acts against property and compulsory relations. Further scientific study requires a detailed separation of embezzlement (as attacks on bodily goods), crimes against the circulation of civil rights (as attacks on non-bodily goods), and crimes in economic activity (as attacks on the procedure for performing operations in the economy), summarizing their characteristic features and designing new formulations of crimes in the property sphere.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (83) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Uldis Ķinis

On January 2018 significant amendments to the Criminal Law and the Law On the Procedure for Application of the Criminal Law came into force in Latvia. These changes not only in the first time introduce the criminal responsibility for the emotional violence, but also determine the procedure for assessing emotional disparity, equating the effects to telepathic injuries.In the article, the author reviews a modality of crime “persecution” - cyber-persecution. Although the legislator in the annotation of the law provides that the article also shall be applicable to acts committed in cyberspace, at the same time, the author indicates some problems that may arise due to the narrow interpretation of the law by the law enforcement. The purpose of the article is to study the object (protected legitimate interest) and the objective side (actus reus) of the offense - cyber-stalking. For purposes of research, several methods have been used. The method of comparative analysis, for examination and comparison of external and international regulations. Methods of legal interpretation used to disclose the differences between the understanding of the written text of the definition of the crime and what ought to be understood in the meaning of the norm. Finally, the author presents the conclusions and proposals on the application of the norm.


Author(s):  
Elena Rossinskaya ◽  
Igor Ryadovskiy

The authors analyze problems connected with malware from the standpoint of the doctrine of the methods of computer crimes/offenses as one of the components of the theory of information-computer support of criminalistic work. Most methods of computer crimes are based on the unauthorized access to computer facilities and systems gained through malware that, in fact, acts as a weapon of crime. The authors present a classification of malware based on different parameters: from the standpoint of criminal law and criminology; the standpoint of information technology; the standpoint of the doctrine of computer crimes/offenses. Various grounds for the classification of malware are examined. A general classification, widely used by the developers of antiviral software, includes virus-programs, worm-programs and trojan-programs. In the modern situation of massive digitization, it is not practical to regard masquerading as a legitimate file as a dominant feature of trojan software. On the contrary, criminals try hard to hide from the user the downloading, installation and activity of malware that cannot self-propagate. The key method of propagating trojan programs is sending mass emails with attachments masquerading as useful content. The classification of malware by the way and method of propagation - viruses, worms and trojan programs - is only currently used due to traditions and does not reflect the essence of the process. A different classification of malware into autonomous, semi-autonomous and non-autonomous programs is based on the possibility of their autonomous functioning. At present there is practically no malware whose functions include only one specific type of actions, most of it contains a combination of various types of actions implemented through module architecture, which offers criminals wide opportunities for manipulating information. The key mechanisms of malwares work are described and illustrated through examples. Special attention is paid to harmful encryption software working through stable cryptographic algorithms - ransomware, when criminals demand ransom for restoring data. There is no criminal liability for such theft. The authors outline the problems connected with the possibility of the appearance of new malware that would affect cloud resources.


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