Criminal Attempts Flashcards
What is meant by ‘inchoate’ offences?
Anticipatory or preparatory
is a crime of preparing for or seeking to commit another crime. The most common example of an inchoate offense is “attempt”.
The offence of a criminal attempt can be used to penalise a criminal for carrying out an act just short of committing a full offense. This offence (a criminal attempt) is described under s 1(1) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981:
If with intent to commit the offence to which this section applies, a person does an act which is more than merely preparatory to the commission of the offence, he/she is guilty of attempting to commit the offence.
What type of an offence must be it be to qualify as ‘attempted’?
Must be an indictable offence (ie it can be tried on indictment in a Crown Court or either way at a magistrates court or a Crown court).
The suspect must have formed criminal intent (mens rea) in what three areas?
The suspect must have the intent to…
Commit the full offence
Take part in a series of acts which will lead to to a final outcome of committing the full offence (e.g collecting toolts, going to house, forcing window open)
Carry out all the elements of the offence (e.g acted dishonestly with intention of appropriating property and permanently depriving).
For a person to be found guilty of an attempt to commit and offence, the suspect must have…
More than intention to do it (R v Campbell [1991])
Must demonstrate a guilty intent by carrying out the type of acts which amount to more than merely preparing to commit the full offence.
The final act carried out by the accused must be…
in combination with all the other preparatory acts, and have no purpose other than to complete the full offence.
To help make the decision to identify the distinction between preparatory acts and attempts to commit a crime, what question could be asked?
Does the available evidence demonstrate the defendant has performed an action which shows the he/she has actually tried to commit the offence in question, or has he/she merely become ready to put themselves in a position to do so (R v Geddes (1996))
According to s 25 of the Theft Act 1968 the law introduced the specific offence of what?
Going equipped to steal. It states that a person is guilty of this offence if, ‘when not at his place of abode, he has with him any article for use in the course of or in connection with any burglary or theft.’
e.g walking down the street with implements to steal a car would not amount to an attempt, but would amount to the offence of going equipped to steal.
For an attempt, if the person BELIEVES they are committing an offence but does not actually commit it, what does that mean?
They’ll still be regarded as having committed it, even if it is proved later that it would not have been possible to commit the full offence.
e.g a woman carrying a suitcase she believes full of heroin, admits it at airport, actually full of vegetable oil = still attempted to commit a crime (R v Shivpuri).
Section 1(2) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 states what?
There must be evidence that the person actually planned to personally carry out the act, rather than just planning it (in which someone else could have carried it out).
The person does an act which is more than merely preparatory to the commission of the offence.
Offences that cannot be criminally attempted
Section 1(4) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 lists several categories of offence that cannot be ‘attempted’.
Summary offence- A criminal offence that is only triable (summarily) in the magistrates’ court.
Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence: that is, an agreement between people to commit an offence.
Aiding, abetting, counselling, procuring, or suborning the commission of an indictable offence (e.g someone knew all the details that led to a murder and did all that pull the trigger themselves).
Assisting offenders: e.g knowingly helping offenders avoid arrest or concealing information.
THE REASON WHY THESE PARTICULAR OFFENCES CANNOT BE ATTEMPTED IS BECAUSE THEY ARE THEMSELVES PREPARATORY CRIMINAL CONDUCT - ONE CANNOT ‘ATTEMPT AN ATTEMPT’.
“Mere Preparation”
Mere preparation is not a substantial step.
Preparation is thinking about committing the crime, talking about it, or planning in the abstract to do it, while perpetration is taking an action that puts the plan in motion and that would result in the intended crime.
Defendant’s misapprehension of the circumstances (Impossibility)
When a defendant has done all he believes necessary to cause a particular result, he has committed an attempt.
- Defendant’s misapprehension of the facts = not a defense.
- Man with aids, bites another, thinking it will kill him (attempted murder)
- Factual / Legal impossibility = NOT A DEFENSE.
- Focus on Defendant’s understanding of the circumstances as HE believes them TO BE.
Criminal Attempt (Definition)
A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime if:
- acting with the kind of culpability otherwise required for the crime, he:
a) purposely engages in conduct that would constitute a crime if the attendant circumstances were as he believes them to be (Impossibility = not a defense)
b) when causing a particular result is an element of the crime, does or omits to do anything with the purpose of causing or with the belief that it will cause such a result without further conduct on his part; or
c) purposely does or omits to do anything, that under the circumstances as he believes them to be, is an act or omission constituting a substantial step in a course of conduct planned to culminate in the commission of the crime.
