Actus Reus Flashcards
What is a conduct crime?
Where the actus reus is the prohibited conduct itself. There doesn’t need to be a consequence.
What is a consequence crime?
Where the defendant doing something (or failing to do something) results in a prohibited consequence. For the consequence crime to be deemed a crime, the behaviour before, and the consequence must have the actus reus.
Omissions as actus reus
Failing to act in a certain situation doesn’t make a person guilty.
Exceptions: where a duty to act already exists, then actus reus applies in an omissions.
What is contractual duty?
Where you have a duty of care in your job
What is relationship duty?
Where either a parent/child relationship operates, a child caring for an elderly relative
What is a factual cause?
Where the consequence wouldn’t have happened but for the defendant’s actions
What is a legal cause?
Where there are lots of factors involved, it may be necessary to investigate all of them in order to determine if there was more than a minimal cause.
What are multiple causes?
Defendant can be guilty even if their conduct was not the only cause of the consequence
What’s the ‘thin-skull’ rule?
If victim suffers an even greater injury owing to their physical or mental state (suffer more than a normal person would) the defendant is liable for that injury
What are intervening acts?
If something separate happens between the defendants conduct and the end consequence, this is called ‘a break in the change of causation’.
When does liability apply in the victims own act?
When the defendant causes the victim to act in such a way that they injure themselves.
What happens if there’s an unreasonable reaction?
If victim reacts in a disproportionate/unreasonable way to a threat, and in doing so injures/kills themselves, then the chain of causation may be broken.
