Chapter 8: Inchoate Crimes Flashcards
criminal attempts
trying but failing to commit crimes
criminal conspiracy
making an agreement to commit a crime
criminal solicitation
trying to get someone else to commit a crime
inchoate offenses
from the Latin “to begin”; crimes that satisfy the mens rea of purpose or specific intent and the actus reus of taking some steps toward accomplishing the criminal purpose—but not enough steps to complete the intended crime
dangerous act rationale
looks at how close defendants came to completing their crimes
dangerous person rationale
concentrates on how fully defendants have developed their intent to commit their crime
general attempt statute
a single statute that applies the attempt to commit any crime in the state’s criminal code
specific attempt statutes
separate statutes that define attempts in terms of specific crimes in the criminal code, such as attempted murder, attempted robbery, and attempted rape—crimes that involved a specific intent
attempt mens rea
the specific intent to commit a crime
attempt actus reus
taking some steps toward completing a crime
last act rule
attempt actus reus requires all but the last act needed to complete the crime
proximity tests
help courts decide when defendants’ acts have taken them further than just getting ready to attempt and brought them close enough to completing crimes to qualify as attempt actus reus
dangerous proximity tests
focus on dangerous conduct; they look at what remains for actors to do before they hurt society by completing the crime
dangerous person tests
look at what actors have already done to demonstrate that they’re a danger to society, not just in this crime but, more important, in crimes they might commit in the future if they’re not dealt with now
dangerous proximity to success test (the physical proximity test)
asks whether defendants have come “dangerously close” to completing the crime
indispensable element test
asks whether defendants have reached a point where they’ve gotten control of everything they need to complete the crime
unequivocality test
(“the act speaks for itself”), examines whether an ordinary person who saw the defendant’s acts without knowing her intent would believe she was determined to commit the intended crime
probable desistance test
determines if defendants have gone far enough toward completing the crime that it’s unlikely they’ll turn back
MPC substantial steps test
test that requires that attempters take enough steps toward completing the crime to prove that they’re determined to commit it
legal impossibility
occurs when actors intend to commit crimes, and do everything they can to carry out their criminal intent, but the criminal law doesn’t ban what they did
factual impossibility
occurs when actors intend to commit a crime and try to but it’s physically impossible because some fact or circumstance unknown to them interrupts or prevents the completion of the crime
extraneous factor
a “stroke of luck”—namely, a circumstance beyond the attempter’s control that prevents the completion of the crime
voluntary abandonment defense
(also called voluntary renunciation defense). defendants who voluntarily and completely renounce their criminal purpose can avoid criminal liability
conspiracy
the crime of agreeing with one or more people to commit a crime
conspiracy actus reus
consists of two parts:
1) an agreement to commit a crime
2) an overt act in furtherance of the agreement
overt act requirement
the requirement of an act that furthers the agreement in conspiracy
conspiracy mens rea
the mental element of conspiracy, frequently identified as specific intent by authorities, but it’s not defined clearly in statutes and it’s defined inconsistently by courts
criminal objective
the criminal goal of an agreement to commit a crime
unilateral approach to conspiracy parties
the rule that not all conspirators have to agree with—or even know—the other conspirators
criminal objective of the conspiracy
the object of conspiracy agreements has to be to commit crimes
wheel conspiracies
one or more defendants participate in every transaction (the hub of the wheel) and others participate in only one transaction (the spokes in the wheel)
chain conspiracies
participants at one end of the chain may know nothing of those at the other end, but every participant handles the same commodity at different points, such as manufacture, distribution, and sale
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)
imposes enhanced penalties for “all types of organized criminal behavior, that is, enterprise criminality—from simple political to sophisticated white-collar schemes to traditional Mafia-type endeavors”
racketeering
original meaning was the extortion of money or advantage by threat or force; now the meaning has expanded to include a pattern of illegal activity (such as extortion and murder) carried out in the furtherance of an enterprise owned or controlled by those engaged in the activity
enterprise
just about any form of human endeavor
pattern of racketeering activity
committing two or more of a huge list of related crimes
solicitation
the crime of trying to get someone else to commit a crime
solicitation actus reus
acts that include some kind of inducement to commit the solicited crime
solicitation mens rea
requires words that convey that their purpose is to get someone to commit a specific crime
criminal objective of the solicitation
circumstance element that the objective of the solicitation is law breaking; the seriousness varies by jurisdiction from any violation to violent felony
