5b. Criminal Law Flashcards
General
Where the defendant wishes to rely on an exception within an element of an offence, or when raising some defences, they will have to prove it. What is the standard to which they must prove?
Balance of probabilities
General
What defences must the prosecution disprove?
Self-defence, and loss of control
General
What must the jury be to convict someone beyond a reasonable doubt?
The jury must be sure that the defendant did it
General
What are the two requirements for a failure to act to amount to a criminal offence?
Defendant:
- Had a duty to act
- Breached the duty by failure to act sufficiently
General
What are the five situations in which a duty to act will arise?
- Statute, e.g. to stop at scene of accident
- Special relationship, e.g. parent-child, doctor-patient
- Voluntarily assumed duty of care for victim
- Contract, e.g. railway guard
- Defendant created dangerous situation and is aware of having done so
General
What are the two stages in the test for causation?
- Factual causation
- Legal causation
General
What does factual causation consider?
Whether the result would have occurred but for the defendant’s conduct
General
If there is more than one cause, and defendant’s action slightly accelerates the result, is there sufficient factual causation?
Yes
Compare with legal causation under which the cause must be substantial
General
What is the purpose of legal causation?
The prevent factual causation test from being overinclusive, where issues like lack of foreseeability would make conviction unfair
General
What are the two requirements of a defendant’s action before it will be a legal cause?
It must be:
1. Substantial, i.e. more than minimal, slight, or trifling, and
2. Operative, i.e. actually cause the result (will be negated by a more substantial intervening act or event)
General
When will medical treatment break the chain of causation?
When the treatment is so bad that the original injury becomes the background
(i.e. the treatment becomes the new operative cause)
General
What is required for intervention of the following parties to break the chain of causation?
- Defendant
- Natural event
- Victim
- Third party
- Defendant: New act
- Natural event: Unforeseeable
- Victim: Voluntary, and unforeseeable, i.e. so daft as to be unforeseeable
- Third party: Free, deliberate, and informed
General
What are the two types of intention?
- Direct
- Indirect (oblique)
General
When will a defendant (1) directly intend an outcome and (2) indirectly intend an outcome?
- When the outcome is the defendant’s aim or purpose
- When the outcome is a virtually certain consequence of the act, and the defendant realises this
General
What are the only offences indirect intention is available for?
What is available instead of indirect intent for basic intent offences?
Specific intent offences only, not basic intent
Recklessness
General
What is a specific intent offence?
An offence which can only be committed with intent, not recklessness
General
As an important aside, is attempt a specific or basic intent offence?
Specific intent, even if the offence attempted is a basic intent offence.
This means that you cannot commit attempt recklessly and to sustain a conviction, it must be shown that the defendant had the specific intent to commit the offence they were attempting.
General
What is the doctrine of transferred malice?
What is the limitation on transferred malice?
If defendant has intent to commit an offence against victim A, but inadvertently commits the offence against victim B, the intent is transferred and the offence is completed in the same way
The offence must be the exact same, e.g. the intent to commit a battery whilst throwing a rock at someone’s head would not transfer and sustain a criminal damage charge if the rock actually breaks a window instead.
General
Where a person is guilty of a crime under transferred malice, what other crime will they usually also be guilty of?
Attempt against victim A
General
What is the two step test for recklessness?
- Defendant foresees any risk from the act, and
- In the circumstances subjectively known to the defendant, this is an objectively unreasonable risk to take
General
What is the three-step test for negligence in criminal law?
Defendant:
1. Owes a duty a care,
2. Breaches by falling below the expected standard of care
and
- The breach causes the harm
Same as tort
General
What is not available in the case of strict liability offences, and why?
Defences that negate state of mind, because state of mind is irrelevant to strict liability
General
Who is a principal offender?
When are two defendants both considered to be principal offenders?
Person who commits the actus reus and has the relevant mens rea at the same time
If they act together for a common purpose, in committing the act
General
What is an innocent agent situation, and who is liable?
Where a defendant asks another do something the defendant knows will amount to an offence, but the other person is unaware, defendant can still be guilty as a principal
General
What are the ways in which accessorial liability can arise?
- Aid
- Abet
- Counsel
- Procure
General
What is abetting?
Encouraging or inciting an offence at the scene of the crime
General
Under the doctrine of joint enterprise, when might a secondary participant in a crime be treated as a principal?
When the secondary participant assists or encourages the commission of a crime and intends that the crime be committed
Homicide
What are the four steps for the crime of murder?
A defendant commits murder when they:
- Cause
- The death of another human
- Unlawfully
- With intent to kill or cause GBH
Dead means medically brain-dead
Homicide
When can the physical act causing murder be an omission?
When the defendant has a duty to care for the victim
Homicide
Is a fetus a human being for the purposes of murder?
No
Homicide
When does voluntary manslaughter arise?
When actus reus and mens rea of murder are made out, but there are partial defences available to the defendant to reduce their liability
Defendant did it on purpose but has an excuse
Homicide
What partial defences will reduce murder to voluntary manslaughter?
Are they only available to a murder charge?
- Diminished responsibility
- Loss of control
Yes
Homicide
What are the four requirements for diminished responsibility?
Who must prove diminished responsibility and to what standard?
- Defendant had abnormality of mental functioning
and the abnormality must:
- Arise from a recognised medical condition
- Substantially impair their ability to understand their conduct, form rational judgment, or exercise self-control, and
- Provide an explanation for the killing
Defendant, on balance of probabilities
Homicide
What is loss of control the modern name for, and what are the two requirements for it?
Who must prove loss of control and to what standard?
Provocation
- Loss of control was caused by a qualifying trigger, and
- A hypothetical person in the defendant’s position might have reacted the same way
The prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that defendant did not lose control
Homicide
What are the two things which amount to a qualifying trigger?
What is specifically excluded as a qualifying trigger?
- Fear of serious violence from victim against defendant or another identified person
- Something said or done constituting a circumstance of an extremely grave character which gave defendant a justifiable sense of being wronged
Revenge, and discovering sexual infidelity (unless paired with taunting)
Homicide
When does involuntary manslaughter occur and what are the two types?
When the mens rea of murder is not made out
- Unlawful act manslaughter
- Gross negligence manslaughter
Defendant did it but not on purpose
Homicide
When does unlawful act manslaughter arise?
Defendant, with the relevant mens rea, commits a dangerous criminal offence, that carries an objective risk to the victim and they die as a result
Homicide
What are the four requirements of the act for unlawful act manslaughter to apply?
Can unlawful act manslaughter be committed by omission?
- D must intend the act
and the act must be: - Unlawful
- Dangerous and
- The cause of death (applying factual and legal causation)
No
Homicide
When does gross negligence manslaughter arise?
Defendant does not commit an offence or knowingly take a risk, but breaches a duty in such an extremely negligent way that they are deemed criminally culpable
There must be a serious and obvious risk of death, whether or not D realises.
Homicide
What are the three elements of gross negligence manslaughter?
Can gross negligence manslaughter be committed by omission, and why?
- D owes duty of care to victim, breaches it and it causes death
- Serious and obvious risk of death (whether or not D was aware)
- Breach was so bad as to give rise to criminal culpability
Yes, because it is based on a duty, and where there is a duty to act, failure to do so will be a breach
Non-fatal offences against the person
When does assault occur?
Does the victim need to be afraid?
When defendant intentionally or recklessly causes another person to apprehend immediate unlawful personal force (i.e. a battery)
No. Apprehension goes to belief, not fear.
Non-fatal offences against the person
How can words (1) amount to and (2) negate an assault?
- If they cause the victim to believe a battery is imminent
- When they stop the victim from believing a battery is imminent
Non-fatal offences against the person
Can a conditional threat be an assault?
Yes, because victim can have the apprehension that the battery will occur if the condition is met
Non-fatal offences against the person
How is intent and recklessness applied to assault?
Intent: Defendant intends the victim to apprehend a battery, or
Recklessness: Defendant foresees the risk that their actions could make the victim apprehend a battery and this risk is unreasonable