Actus reus Essays

  • Actus Reus Definition

    459 Words  | 2 Pages

    Actus Reus is Latin for “guilty act,” referring to criminal demeanor. Specifically, intended, or feloniously neglectful action or inaction that causes detriment. Anything from a bodily assault or homicide to the obliteration of community property would be considered Actus reus. Another form would be omission as an act of criminal negligence. This includes not attempting to take action that would have prevented harm to another person. The exemption to actus reus is when the illicit

  • Actus Reus Of Rape Essay

    995 Words  | 4 Pages

    The actus reus of rape involves the non consensual penetration of the mouth, anus or vagina of a man or woman by a man’s penis. Penetration by the penis is the key to the actus reus of rape. “Penetration is a continuing act from entry to withdrawal.” This enshrines the pre-Sexual Offences Act decision in the case of Kaitmaki that a man who continues to have intercourse after consent is withdrawn commits the actus reus of rape. This essay focuses on the law that protects a female from rape in the

  • Cognizant Vs Unintentional Actus Re Surged Versus Criminal

    1886 Words  | 8 Pages

    wrongdoing and 2) mental aim to do a wrongdoing . Actus reus is ordinarily portrayed as a criminal exhibition that was the delayed consequence of deliberate genuine improvement. This portrays a physical activity that harms another person or damages property. Anything from a physical assault or crime to the pulverization of open property would qualify as an actus reus. Avoidance, as an exhibit of criminal indiscretion, is another appearance of actus reus. It lies on the reverse side of the reach from

  • Theories Of Omission

    2080 Words  | 9 Pages

    Introduction First of all, a defendant will only be found guilty of a crime if the prosecution can establish two main elements of a crime, which are actus reus and the mens rea. Actus reus is the wrongful act or omission that comprises the physical component of a crime. Mens rea is a person’s awareness of the fact that his or her conduct is criminal. For a defendant to be held liable, it has to be proved that the defendant voluntarily performed the act or omission. In Hill v Baxter , it was established

  • Compare And Contrast The Four Classifications Of Mens Rea

    2029 Words  | 9 Pages

    or conduct of the accused’ (oxford dictionary reference) known as the Actus Reus of an offence. Mens rea is made up of four fault elements: Intention, Knowledge, Recklessness and Negligence. Establishing which category of Mens Rea an offence falls under is important in many cases where the prosecution must prove a ‘culpable state of mind’ (don’t have a reference but feel like need one) in respect to the result of the Actus Reus of an offence. Ascertaining what, and how much, the defendant foresaw

  • Sandusky Rape Case Analysis

    849 Words  | 4 Pages

    The concept of criminal failure to act is an interesting one in that in the one hand it tries to make persons to be orally and ethically responsible for the common good, on the other hand it attempts to restrict or stop criminal liability in situations in which the defendants have no control over (Sistare, 1989). The concept advocates for the understanding that the failure by someone to act in a particular situation results in the cat tagged as omission. In the case of the Sandusky rape case at the

  • Should Jason Be Held Liable For The Death Of Pinky

    1587 Words  | 7 Pages

    In order for a person to be found guilty of a crime, two elements must be present which are the actus reus (guilty act) and the mens rea (guilty mind). The first part of this essay seeks to consider the liability for homicide offences and also assess whether Jason, Welch, Ellis and Stevens have any potential defences based on the crimes they committed. P360 Will Jason be held liable for the death of pinky? Pinky suffered harm from Jason’s act, in a situation like this, we would need to look at s

  • Examples Of Strict Liability Offence In Criminal Law

    1483 Words  | 6 Pages

    Strict Liability Offences, Fair and Just or a step to far. In a criminal trial the burden is on the prosecution to prove mens rea on the part of the accused, in doing so as to demonstrate intent, recklessness or knowledge on their part unless the crime is one of strict liability. The three types of mens rea which the courts take into consideration are set out as follows; Intent refers to the state of mind accompanying an act especially a forbidden act. It is the outline of the mental pattern which

  • Criminally Liable For Omission Essay

    2952 Words  | 12 Pages

    A person is said to be criminally liable if he commits an act which the law renders illegal. Under English criminal law a person is generally not liable for an omission. The crime must be capable of being committed by omission. For example if A was drowning and B sees A drowning, there is no responsibility on B’s part to help A. Even if A ends up dying B is not liable for A’s death. He may only merely have a moral obligation to help but he cannot be charged with murder or battery. Basically,

  • Dispositional Risk Factors

    3838 Words  | 16 Pages

    Mental state, intention and responsibility A crime is defined as an act that is capable of being followed by criminal proceedings. In any offences, the accused should be proven on whether he has physically done the act (actus reus) or that the act has casued the offending consequences. Secondly, the accused should be assessed on whether he/she has intention to do it (mens rea). Three other forms of intent that needed to be taken into considerations are: Recklessness, Negligence and Accident. Recklessness

  • Mens Rea In R V Mohan

    1352 Words  | 6 Pages

    Mens rea is the element of a crime which alludes to what is known as the “guilty mind”. The case of R v Mohan [1976] QB 1 , the case dealing with the meaning of intention in the context of the offence of murder, James LJ clarified that intention meant ‘aim’ or ‘a decision to bring about a certain consequence’ whilst mens rea is generally related with motive what it more directly links to the notion of intention. There are two types of intention, direct intention and oblique intention .Oblique intention

  • Emile Durkheim Theory Of Crime

    891 Words  | 4 Pages

    Crime is defined as an action which evokes dissent and constitutes an offence in society. Crime can take a number of forms which have been conceptualized by a number of sociologists. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the function of crime regarding its contribution towards social stability. The French Sociologist, Emile Durkheim, was the first to comprehensively establish a relation between social functionalism, crime and deviance. (Emile Durkheim - functional explanation) He put forward his

  • Advantages And Disadvantages Of Mens Rea

    1312 Words  | 6 Pages

    The mens rea is the mental element of an offence. It refers to the mental state of the accused in terms of the offence. If no mens rea is present the accused cannot be convicted with the exception of absolute or strict liability. In order for a person to be guilty of a specific crime it is expected that the defendant has the necessary mens rea.(4) ‘Intention means the conscious objective or purpose of the accused.’(1) Intention is not the same as motive or desire to achieve a particular result.

  • Necrophilia In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

    1173 Words  | 5 Pages

    Necrophilia is described as a person having sexual feelings or performing activities that involve a corpse. Miss Emily Grierson, the protagonist in William Faulkner’s short retrospective Gothic “A Rose for Emily,” is a necrophiliac. In this Gothic work, Faulkner illustrates how isolation from society can drive someone to commit grotesque acts. Faulkner expands on the theme of loneliness in his Gothic, “A Rose for Emily,” through the interactions Emily has with the townsmen, the death of Emily’s father

  • Objective Recklessness In Criminal Law

    1521 Words  | 7 Pages

    Recklessness, indeed is a term used to condemn the actions of a person who is the cause of an undesirable circumstance. It features as one of four possible mental states that may constitute the mens rea of a crime. To be reckless, a person is involved with ‘’the taking of an unreasonable risk of which the risk taker is aware.’’ However, it is important to note that the risk ‘’does not have to be foreseen as highly likely to occur.’’ Recklessness, a term that is commonly featured within the criminal

  • Consent In Criminal Law

    1993 Words  | 8 Pages

    In criminal law when a criminal act is alleged to have been committed, the essential requirement for the crime is that the victim was opposed to the crime. One of the available defences when a criminal act is committed is that the victim actually gave consent to the acts . The defence of consent is available to certain case that result in bodily harm which includes assault and battery. For instance, in sports there is a physical contact. Participants are deemed to have consented to the physical

  • The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd Analysis

    1292 Words  | 6 Pages

    AAgatha Christie shows why The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the model of detective fiction novels by using several intimations in her book. There are two types of clues, ones that are helpful to the detective and ones that are useless. Hints and evidence that purposely mislead the reader are known as red herrings. Joan Acocella discusses Christie’s work and brings up her use of red herrings in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, commenting, “...that is, when the occurrence is trivial but nonetheless mentioned—this

  • Mens Rea In Criminal Law

    2067 Words  | 9 Pages

    not only committed the particular offense (actus reus) but also that the crime was committed with the sole intention of committing the crime (the defendant had the mens rea when committing the crime. (Karlen H. Peter

  • Arizona Revised Statutes And The Texas Penal Code

    1022 Words  | 5 Pages

    while determining the actus reus, the mens rea, the causation, and determining the attendant circumstance if present. For my analysis, I researched both Arizona Revised Statutes and the Texas Penal Code . Murder in Arizona is defined under the Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S) 13-1105. The actus reus element needed to prove murder in the first degree is that the defendant killed a person. The mens rea element is that the defendant knowingly or intended to cause another

  • Seven Elements Of Crime Essay

    447 Words  | 2 Pages

    I will be explaining through the seven elements of crime whether illegal drug use, prostitution, and gambling fit the elements (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The seven elements of the crime are harm, legality, actus reus, mens rea, causation, concurrence, and punishment. Discuss in detail whether illegal drug use, prostitution, and gambling fit the seven elements of a crime from. Include in your discussion whether these three crimes should be considered mala in se or mala prohibita. The