Criminal law manages with the offender’s punishment, the burden of proof which means beyond reasonable doubt, it is quite strict and stringent.
Many different crimes can be committed and various places which they are defined either in statute or common law.
Criminal law is otherwise known as the theory of ‘deterrence’, it deals with the punishment that the party feels guilty and rectifies his mistakes and makes sure that such kind of crime will not happen in the future.
Crime
A Crime is actually defined or outlined by the way of the law itself. The more heinous and more fundamental crimes have been defined by common law.
E.g. Assault, Murder, Manslaughter.
Certain statutes have described certain other crimes as well.
E.g. Rape, Theft, Robbery.
In further detail, if we take rape as an example, it has been described in the Sexual Offences Act of 2003.
You can define crimes as either result crimes or conduct crimes.
Conduct crimes mean that your conduct itself would mean that a crime is committed.
E.g. Perjury in court.
Result crime is one where the result has to happen in order for the crime to have been committed.
E.g. Murder, where the person has to die in order for the criminal to be accused of murder to be convicted later on of it.
Key Facts:
1) The Law outlines what a crime is and is not.
It doesn’t depend on a particular group or individual to determine what a crime is, but the law itself, it can be case law or certain enactments statute.
2) A fundamental premise of a criminal law is a person is presumed innocent till proven guilty.
3) A person can be tried for a civil and criminal case simultaneously.
The Law of Tort defines certain tortious liabilities that are imposed on individuals then none of these individuals have also been convicted or have been tried or being tried for a particular criminal offense as well so tortious liability is the civil aspect of certain crimes or criminal activities that a person had been involved.
Elements of Offense
Two main elements have to be fulfilled.
- Actus Reus (The external physical act)
- Mens Rea (The Internal Element or The Mental Intent)
Again the burden of proof is on the prosecution except for instances where there is defense of insanity.
Actus Reus
Both the Mens Rea and the Actus Reus have to take place at the same time when a person intends to do a crime.
The Actus Reus actually covers the act(E.g. committing a murder, unlawful killing of a human being) or the omission (E.g. failure to send tax returns), the circumstance (E.g. the theft must be the property of another) surrounding it as well as the consequence (E.g. murder or death).
A conviction cannot be made unless both Actus Reus and the Mens Rea elements are established and proved.
Example on how Actus Reus fits into the definition of crime.
Let’s take the definition of theft as per section 1 sub-section 1 of theft act 1968.
Theft is defined as a person who dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it.
Here the appropriation of property belonging to another is the Actus Reus, the physical act itself whereas the intention of permanently depriving the other of it is the intent or the mental aspect or the Mens Rea.
A crime is not a strict liability offense when both the Actus Reus and Mens Rea elements have to coincide and are present.
Strict Liability Offense is an offense which can be committed without a Mens Rea without a mental intention.
When you have an Actus Reus and a Mens Rea, you can convict a person.
When there is an Actus Reus and no Mens Rea, you can still convict a person because there are strict liability crimes like selling adulterated food.
However, when there is no Actus Reus and only a Mens Rea as in intent alone you cannot convicta person.
An Actus Reus can be committed by doing something which results in a certain consequences or it could be committed voluntarily or concurrently as in without a particular result but as a conduct itself.
I hope this article gave you a brief idea on how a person is convicted and under which procedure they are, this article is issued by a SEO Company from Chennai.
