Unit 2 - Criminal Liablity

Question 1

Classification of crimes

Answer 1

Conduct crimes - not necessary for a consequence. The behaviour is enough to be classified as prohibited e.g. theft of a chocolate bar - the consequence is having a chocolate bar, which isn’t a crime, but stealing is

Result crimes - the conduct results in an illegal consequence e.g. murder

Question 2

How is criminal liability proved

Answer 2

Actus reus + men’s rea = criminal liability

Question 3

What are the ways in which actus reus can be committed?

Answer 3

1. Act
2. Omission
3. State of affairs

Question 4

Act

Answer 4

Must be voluntary. If not voluntary, there was no actus reus committed (hill v Baxter)

Question 5

Omissions

Answer 5

Failure to act (usually no liability, in some circumstances a duty to act is imposed

1. Contractual duty - defendant fails to fulfil a contractual obligation (pittwood)
2. By virtue of a special relationship - parent child (gibbins & proctor)
3. Voluntary duty - voluntarily undertaken a duty of care for someone who cannot care for themselves (stone & dobinson)
4. Official position - police officers (dytham)
5. Duty arising through accused’s conduct - D creates a dangerous situation and fails to minimise the consequence (Miller)
6. Statutory duty - parliament imposes a duty to act e.g. wearing seatbelts under the road traffic act 1988

Question 6

State of affairs

Answer 6

Criminalises being found in a particular circumstance at a particular time, irrelevant of how they got there (larsonneur)

Question 7

Causation - factual causation

Answer 7

= what happened

But for test - assesses whether a particular outcome would still have occurred if the alleged cause had not been present (Pagett) (White)