Discuss Alan(TM)s possible criminal liability arising out of the incidents at the building site
January 2005: 2 (A) Discuss Eric's criminal liability for property offences arising out of the party at Fred's house. (25 marks) Eric could be found guilty of burglary under the Theft Act 1968 of section 9. A person is guilty of burglary if: a) he enters any building or part of a building as a trespasser and with intent to commit theft, inflict grievous bodily harm, rape or do unlawful damage therein; or b) having entered any building or part of a building as a trespasser he steals or attempts to steal anything or that part of it, or inflicts or attempts to inflict on any person therein any grievous bodily harm. From looking at Eric's situation he has been a trespasser, (s9.1b) as he's just a guest and has exceeded his limit to entry, that he had been given permission for. Having helped himself upstairs and then committing criminal damage is another offence of ulterior. The mens rea of burglary is the intention or recklessness to being a trespasser and intention to commit an ulterior offence. Eric fulfils the mens rea of burglary as he had the intention to go beyond the permission given to him, when he decided to go upstairs to the bedroom to destroy the presents. The ulterior offence which he has committed is criminal damage and GBH. The two factors which must be proved in burglary are that the defendant must enter a building or part of a building and he must be a
The law relating to the defence of insanity is out dated and unsatisfactory. Reform is long overdue in the interests of both justice and common sense. Evaluate the accuracy of this statement.
The law relating to the defence of insanity is out dated and unsatisfactory. Reform is long overdue in the interests of both justice and common sense. Evaluate the accuracy of this statement. Insanity, also known as insane automatism, is a defence which is defined in purely legal terms as opposed to a medical definition. There has been widespread criticism of the law relating to insanity, it has been described as unsatisfactory and out dated, with reform ''long overdue'' not only in judicial terms, but common sense. The rules relating to insanity originate from the M'Naughton rules, set out in 1843. These rules were created following public outcry following the decision in M'Naughton (1843), and stated that jurors ought to be told ''in all cases, everyone is presumed sane'' and to possess ''a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary be proven to their satisfaction'', which basically means that the defendant is automatically responsible for their crimes unless proven otherwise, or guilty until proven innocent. To establish a defence on the grounds of insanity, it must be clearly proven that at the time of committing the act the accused party was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind as to not know a. The nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it then b. that he did not know what he was
intoxication as a defence
Evaluate the effectiveness of intoxication as a defence. Defendants can be intoxicated by the consumption of alcohol and/or the use of drugs. Intoxication can only be used as a defence when the defendant can show that he or she was incapable of forming the mens rea of the offence that he or she is charged with. If the defendant was still able to form the necessary mens rea even whilst intoxicated, the defence would not apply. Even when the defendant proves that they did not possess mens rea, they can still be found liable for certain crimes. A distinction between specific intent and basic intent crimes has been made by courts. A specific intent crime is where the mens rea is the only intention. Examples include murder, theft, burglary and robbery. Voluntary and involuntary intoxication both provide a defence to specific intent crimes. In basic intent crimes, the mens rea can include recklessness. Examples include involuntary manslaughter, battery and assault. Defence to a specific intent crime is not available if the defendant has been reckless whilst voluntarily intoxicated however; involuntary intoxication does provide a defence to basic intent crimes. Voluntary intoxication is available only to specific intent crimes if the defendant is incapable of forming the necessary mens rea. 'Dutch courage', the act of deliberately intoxicating yourself in order to
Property Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Police Powers of Search and Entry.
Task 3: Identify the elements of property offences. . Theft Theft Act 1968 states that a person will be responsible of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property which is belonging to another with the purpose of permanently depriving the other of it. For Actus Reus related to theft it can be that if a person in a business steals company files without having permission to do so, this means that the person would be committing theft and for this reason they can be found guilty. For the Mens Rea of theft, the person must have been intended to steal something from the company such as the company files, this can be done due to get a member of staff in the company in trouble or to get them sacked. There was a case where a person was convicted of theft. D was a solicitor who transferred money from his clients' account to a higher account in an attempt to cover his personal debts. D was guilty since it was an illegal action to take. Fernandes, R v [1996]. 2: Obtaining property by deception Fraud Act 2006 states that you cannot gain property by giving incorrect information. For example a person who is working to care for an elderly or disabled person, but the person who is caring for them has access to the elderly or disabled person's bank account and misuses his position by transferring money to invest in a high-risk business of his own. The Mens Rea of obtaining property by
delegated legisation
Clare Beavis Delegated Legislation Delegated legislation is law that is made by certain individuals or bodies rather than parliament. It is also sometimes referred to as law made by subordinate authorities who are acting under the grant of law- making powers delegated to them by parliament. Delegated legislation is necessary because parliament doesn't have the time or expertise to create law that is detailed and contains the satisfactory amount of technical points. The detail is therefore added in by who ever the power is delegated to. One form of delegated legislation is statutory instruments. A Statutory Instrument is often abbreviated to SI and they are needed to cover all the main details and operations that are to long or complex to be included within the main body of the act. They can also be used for updating Acts. This law making power is given to Ministers, who are head of government and includes implementing EU laws. For example a Statutory Instrument can be used for the fixing of fees or charges. The Statutory Instruments can allow fees or charges to be updated without the need for a new Bill. Another example of a SI is the Road Traffic act 1988. Another form of delegation legislation is bye-laws. This law only affects the area that it is made in. This form of law gives the law making powers to the local Authorities. A bye- law that illustrates this is the
The law on attempts has now been settled Discuss
"The law on attempts has now been settled" - Discuss Attempt is where a person, with intention to commit an offence, does an act which is more than merely preparatory to the commission of the offence. The offence of attempts existed at common law but is now regulated by the Criminal Attempts Act 1981. Before the Criminal attempts Act 1981, the more than merely preparatory stage was decided using a number of different tests. These tests included the Proximity test, Rubicon test and the Series of Acts test. The Proximity test looked backwards from the complete offence to see whether D's acts were connected to the actus reus to justify the imposition of liability for an attempt. The Rubicon test was devised in DPP v Stonehouse, and this holds that a person is not adjudged to be beginning his attempt until he has gone past the point of no return. In Boyle and Boyle, the series of acts test was referred by the Court of Appeal and this act states that an attempt to commit a crime is an act done with intent to commit that crime and forms part of a series of acts which would have been completed if it was not interrupted. To be liable for an attempted offence, the person needs to have mens rea for the whole of the offence and the actus rea must be beyond the merely preparatory stage. The merely preparatory test looks forward from the point of the preparatory act to see whether
Crime Definitions and the extent of crime
Crime Definitions and the extent of crime The definition of crime stands to be" an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally prohibited." (Dictionary.com) When looking at the British crime survey (BCS) and then looking at police records it showed up that there should be about 50% more recorded crime from the British crime survey that just the police recorded alone. If you looked at the stats that the British crime survey produced just for England and Wales it calculates that in 2006/2007, there were 726,000 burglaries. On the other hand the police statistics for 2006/2007 are 300,500 burglaries. This proves that the BCS has about 50% more recorded crimes throughout England and Wales. There are different reasons for why the crime statistics from the police and the BCS are different. To have a crime booked and recorded the must be victims, Witnesses, injuries, certain laws to be broken or the criminal to be caught. If you take into account that there are 60 million people living in England and Wales, on average there is £50-£60 million spent on crime. This show that on average every tax payer pays abut £1000 per year just due to crime. There is 5.5 million recorded offences by the police while the BCS reckon that there are 10.9 million offences committed each year.
The justifiable use of force in self-defence depends entirely upon the circumstances in which it is used. Factors such as mistake and intoxication may also be relevant. Critically consider the truth of the above statement.
"The justifiable use of force in self-defence depends entirely upon the circumstances in which it is used. Factors such as mistake and intoxication may also be relevant". Critically consider the truth of the above statement. Self-defence (which includes acting in the prevention of crime) results in a compete acquittal. It allows rotationally criminal activity to be accepted by the courts. It can be used as a defence to all crimes, including murder. An obvious point here to consider is whether it is really morally right to allow those have taken lives to receive a full acquittal. It may be fair for lesser crimes, but maybe a partial defence should be introduced for those who have killed another. However, it is more commonly used for non-fatal offences. There are three situations in which force can be used. This includes prevention of crime (S.3 (1) Criminal Law Act 1967), defence of property (S.5 (2) Criminal Damage Act 1971) and of course self-defence which is found in common law. As it is not laid down in a specific act, but just common law, it may provide some inconsistencies in the law. When the defendant pleads self-defence, the onus is placed on the prosecution to disprove it. There are two limbs to this principle. The prosecution must prove that the use of any force was unnecessary or, if some force was justifiable that the actual degree of force used was reasonable.
Pros and cons of custodial and community sentences.
Discuss the pros and cons of custodial and community sentences. June 06 The advantages of custodial sentences are that the criminal cannot commit so many crimes against the public at large and the purpose of public protection is thereby realised. Also criminals that have committed a serious offence such as rape, murder, manslaughter will be of the public awareness also the consequences bring in the idea of general deterrence in addition to individual deterrence. Some criminals may learn from their negligence therefore become better people when they have served their sentence. Custodial sentences include discretionary life sentences, which is an advantage because this type of sentence ensures criminals who have committed serious offences such as robbery, rape and manslaughter, are sentenced to life imprisonment. However the disadvantages would be that prisoners who are sent to prison spend too much time with other dangerous criminals which can turn that prisoner into a better and more dangerous criminal when they have served their sentence. Another factor would be the population of the prisons due to the maximum capacity being 80,000 this is still not enough to hold the criminals therefore leading to overcrowding and this can lead to criminals being released before serving their full sentence which is unsafe and unfair. Prisons are also very expensive to run, it costs
Prison Inmate Rehabilitation Through Education
Kayli Sears Prison Inmate Rehabilitation Through Education The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and for the first time in the nation's history, more than one in every 100 American adults is confined in a prison or jail (Vicini). The current growth is not necessarily driven by a parallel increase in crime or population growth. The increase more stems from the wave of policy changes that are sending more lawbreakers to prison and through the tougher three-strike laws and other sentencing structures that are keeping convicted criminals in jail or prison longer. An even more alarming statistic is that more than half of inmates released from jail or prison are habitual repeat offenders who end up incarcerated over and over again. The necessity to keep violent criminals and those who threaten communities behind bars or to make sure those that break laws are punished and face consequences for their actions is of unquestionable importance, but the high prison populations and the high cost of American tax dollars to house these inmates proves that there is a flaw in the system. No one seems to be benefiting in the long run. The high probability of an offender becoming a repeat offender once they are released is not an issue that can be ignored. Since the judicial programs can not seem to deter convicted criminals from returning there
