Actus Reus Notes

This is a short sample from our Criminal Law Notes collection which contains 231 pages of notes in total. If you find this useful you might like to consider purchasing our Criminal Law Notes.

Pages In Full Document 5
Category: Law Notes
Original Document File Type: Word (Docx) (Conversion to PDF is available post purchase if required)
Price: Part of a package Criminal Law Notes containing 19 other documents which retails for £24.99.

The original file is a 'Word (Docx)' whilst this sample is a 'PDF' representation of said file. This means that the formatting here may have errors. The original document you'll receive on purchase should have more polished formatting.

Actus Reus Revision

The following is a plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Criminal Law Notes. This text version has had its formatting removed so pay attention to its contents alone rather than its presentation. The version you download will have its original formatting intact and so will be much prettier to look at.

Actus Reus • AR = the conduct element. Prescribes what needs to be done, in what circumstance and with what result (but not necessarily all three). o Result: V is killed (note that we don't really criminalise results in themselves, but rather the causation of results). o Conduct: in rape: penetration. o Circumstance: property belongs to another. • All crimes have an AR. It is possible to have missing MR elements but this is not so for AR.

Omissions
• Stephen LJ: "It is not a crime to cause death or injury, even intentionally, by any omission".
• This is not strictly true, but we are usually unwilling to prosecute for omissions: o Criminal liability for failure to act breaches autonomy. o It is less burdensome of the law to require someone to refrain from doing something then it is to oblige him or her to do it.
• Often difficult to distinguish between acts and omissions (e.g. child accidentally puts hand on D's genitals in Speck, but D is guilty of an offence by positive act). o Note relevance of 'killing' v 'letting die'. Doctors could turn of life support in Airedale v Bland because it was allowing nature to take its course. Mustill: 'the omission to perform what had previously been a duty will' not be illegal.
• EXCEPTIONS: o Duty to act: can arise by virtue of (note that where there is a duty D must do what is reasonable, as assessed by a jury):  Automatically arising duty e.g. parent.  Assumed duty for a person e.g. carer. Includes stepparent; this is a continuing duty once adopted (Gibbins v Proctor, Stone and Dobinson).  Contractual obligation (Pitwood)  Statute: failure to provide a breath specimen to a police officer. Also in Children and Young Persons Act 1933.  Common law duty: most common is refusal to assist a police officer when called upon to aid in restoring peace. o D creates a dangerous situation - the Miller principle, where D fell asleep and caused a fire from his cigarette. He had a 'responsibility' to put out the resulting fire. Subtly expanded in Evans.

****************************End Of Sample*****************************

Buy the full version of these notes and essays alongside much more in our Criminal Law Notes.