Essential Elements Of Crime

Question 1

Physical Act

Answer 1

D must have either performed a voluntary physical act or failed to act under circumstances imposing a legal duty to act.

Act = bodily movement

Question 2

Omission as Act

Answer 2

Failure to act gives rise to liability only if

1. Legal duty to act
2. D has knowledge of facts giving rise to duty to act
3. It is reasonably possible to perform the duty

Question 3

Legal duty to act

Answer 3

1. Statutory duty
2. Relationship between D and V
3. Voluntary assumption of care
4. D creates V peril

Question 4

Possession

Answer 4

Possession of contraband generally only requires D have

1. Control of the item
2. For a long enough period
3. To terminate possession

Constructive possession: actual physical control need not be proved when contraband located in an area within D’s dominion & control

State if Mind: d must be aware of his possession of contraband but need not be aware of its illegality UNLESS

“Knowingly” requirement: d must know the identity or nature of the item possessed.

Cannot consciously avoid learning true nature of item; knowledge may be inferred from combination of suspicion and indifference to truth.

Question 5

Specific Intent

Answer 5

Crime may require not only doing or act, but also doing act with specific intent.

Existence of specific intent cannot be imputed from mere doing of act, but the manner in which the crime was committed may provide circumstantial evidence of intent.

Question 6

Specific intent crimes

Answer 6

Solicitation
Attempt
Conspiracy 
First degree murder 
Assault 
Larceny & Robbery
Burglary
Forgery 
False pretense 
Embezzlement

Question 7

General Intent

Answer 7

Awareness of all factors constituting crime; D must be aware that he is acting in the proscribed way and that any required attendant circumstances exist.

D need not be aware all circumstances exist; sufficient that he is aware of high likelihood that they will occur

Question 8

General intent crimes

Answer 8

Battery
Rape
Kidnapping
False imprisonment

Question 9

Strict Liability Offenses

Answer 9

A strict liability or public welfare offense is one that does not require awareness or all of the factors constituting the crime.

D can be found guilty merely be committing the act.

Statutory Rape
Selling liquor to minors
Bigamy

Question 10

Purposely

Answer 10

A person acts purposely when his conscious objective is to engage in certain conduct or cause a certain result

Question 11

Knowingly

Answer 11

A person acts knowingly when he is aware jay his conduct is of a particular nature or that certain circumstances exist.

Also deemed aware of those circumstances when he is aware of a high probability that they exist and deliberately avoids learning the truth.

Acts knowingly with respect to the result of his conduct when he knows that his conduct will very likely cause a particular result.

Question 12

Recklessly

Answer 12

A person acts recklessly when he

consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that circumstances exist or that a prohibited result will follow, and

this disregard constitutes a gross deviation from the the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in the situation.

Question 13

Negligence

Answer 13

A person acts negligently when he fails to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk, where such failure is a substantial deviation from a the standard of care.

Question 14

Transferred Intent

Answer 14

D can be held liable under doctrine if transferred intent where she intends the harm that is actually caused, but to a different V or object.

Homicide
Battery
Arson

Question 15

Concurrence is mental fault with physical act

Answer 15

D must have had the intent necessary for the crime at the time he committed the act constituting the crime, and the intent must have actuated the act.