A-LEVEL AQA CRIMINAL LAW (1)

• What is the Actus Reas of a crime?


  Physical act
• What is the Mens Rea of a crime?


  Intent
• Fair labeling


  The offence that someone is convicted of must correctly describe the crime that they have committed
• Correspondence principle


  The actus reas and mens rea of a crime should correspond, when AR and MR do not correspond the lability of the accused should not exceed the harm intent
• Maximum certainty


  Law should be certain. If it is not known what elements constitute as a crime, than someone should not be convicted of it
• Retrospective liability


  If the conduct is not a crime at the time it is committed, it is unjust to convict someone of this at a later date
• The offence that someone is convicted of must correctly describe the crime that they have committed due to the stigma that certain offences carry
• Actus reus


  Prohibited conduct/physical elements of a crime
• Types of actus reus

  • Act
  • Omission
  • State of affairs
• Actus reus


  • Consequence crime the consequence itself is criminal
• Defendant must have the actus reus for the crime and cause the prohibited consequence
• State of affairs crime


  Concerned with 'being' rather than 'doing'
• Voluntary nature of actus reus


  • No control = no liability
• A person can be convicted even if actions were voluntary, involves state of affairs but not one that the defendant entered into voluntarily
• Omission


  Failure to act upon someone's duty
• Statutory duty


  Duties created by parliament. Failing to act in a certain circumstance will be an offence
• Statutory duty

  • Failure to report road accident-Road traffic act 1988
• Contractual duty


  Duties created by a contract or work
• Contractual duty

  • Rv Pittwood - Railway keeper omitted to shut the gates resulting in death
• Voluntary duty


  Where someone has voluntarily undertaken the duty to look after someone or something
• Voluntary duty


  • Gibbons v Proctar 1918, R v Stone and Dobison (1977)
• Duty through a relationship

  Parent-child relationship, as a parent has a duty care for a young child
• Causation


  Identifying who is responsible for the consequence
• Factual causation


  The defendant is only guilty if the consequence would not have happened otherwise
• But for rule


  Used to work out factual causation
• Legal causation


  Ensures there is little chance of convicting an innocent person
• Chain of causation


  The link between the act and the consequence
• More than minimal rule


  Defendant must be the significant cause of the consequence
• Defendants conduct


  Must be more than minimal to the cause of the consequence
• Famous cases

  • Padgett
  • Kimsey 1996
  • Cato 1976
• Even


  The defendant must take the victim as they find them, even if the injury is worse than it would be on another person
• Thin skull rule


  The defendant must take the victim as they find them, even if the injury is worse than it would be on another person
• This means that even though the injury is worse than it would be on another, defendant is still responsible (Blaue 1975)
• Chain of causation


  There must be a literal or clear link between the defenders act and the outcome
• Ways the chain of causation can be broken

  • Act of a third party
  • Victims own acts
  • Medical treatment
• Act of a third party


  Sufficiently independent of the original action and is unforeseeable
• Medical treatment


  Can break the chain of causation, but this is genuinely unlikely. To break the chain so the AR becomes liable, the medical treatment must be independent to the defendants act and so potent in causing harm that the original act becomes insignificant (Smith, Jordan)
• Victims own act


  Can break the chain of causation if the victims acts in an unforeseeable or unreasonable, daft way. If a victim in faces a serious threat it is more likely for their act to be reasonable
• Mens res


  The mental element of the crime
• Mens rea


  The mental element of the crime, this is not interested in why the defendant committed the crime. This is concerned with looking at if the defendant intended to commit the crime.