Criminal Law 8 – Flashcards
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Criminal attempts, criminal conspiracies, and criminal solicitation are all
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- inchoate offenses (crimes - to begin)
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Dangerous act rationale-
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looks at how close defendants came to completing their crimes
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The crime of attempt consists of two elements:
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Intent or purpose to commit a specific crime; and an act, or acts, to carry out the intent
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Two types of attempt statutes:
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general attempt and specific intent
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The rationale for attempt crimes focuses on what two types of danger:
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dangerous conduct and dangerous people
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4. Physical proximity tests of the actus reus of attempt focus on:
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how close the defendant gets to committing the crime.
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Physical proximity tests
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You don't have to worry about the difficult task of figuring out whether it was knowing, reckless, negligent, or strict liability when it comes to attempt mens rea
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Proximity tests
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Attempt mens rea- the specific intent to commit a crime
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Proximity tests-
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help courts decide when defendant's acts have taken them further than just getting ready to attempt and brought them close enough to completing the crimes to qualify as attempt actus reus
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Which rationale concentrates on how fully defendants have developed their criminal purpose:
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the dangerous precedent rationale
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Participants at one end of the chain may know nothing of those at the other end, but every participant handles the same commodity at different points, such as manufacture, distribution, and sale is known as:
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chain conspiracies
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Which of the following would be a valid impossibility defense:
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To avoid paying customs, a man sneaks an antique book past customs, not knowing that there's an exception in the law for antique books
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Legal impossibility-
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occurs when actors intend to commit crimes, and do everything they can do to carry out their criminal intent, but the criminal law doesn't ban what they did
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Stabbing an already dead victim is an example of:
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a factual impossibility
Occurs when actors intend to commit a crime and try to but it's physically impossible because some fact or circumstance unknown to them interrupts or prevents the completion of the crime
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To be a defense to attempt, the abandonment of the attempt must be:
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voluntary
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The defendant sees a car he wants to steal and breaks the window glass. The police interrupt. It turns out the car belongs to the defendant:
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has a valid defense of legal impossibility
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Voluntary abandonment (voluntary renunciation defense)-
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defendants who voluntarily and completely renounce their criminal purpose can avoid criminal liability
Affirmative defense
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Legal impossibility is:
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occurs when actor's intent to commit crimes, and do everything they can do to carry out their criminal intent, but the criminal law doesn't ban what they did
Legally impossible to commit a crime that doesn't exist
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The core of conspiracy is:
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an agreement to commit a crime
This agreement that gives rise to criminal liability, by transforming a lonely criminal thought in the mind of a single, powerless individual into an agreement with another person.
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Conspiracy actus reus consist of two parts:
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consists of two parts: (1)an agreement to commit a crime (in all states) and (2) an overt act in furtherance of the agreement (in about half the states)
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Voluntary and complete abandonment of an attempt in progress is a defense to what liability in about half the states:
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attempt liability
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Most modern statutes use the unilateral approach to conspiracy crimes. This means that:
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all of the conspirators do not have to intend to go through with the agreement to commit the crime
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A conspiracy where one or more defendants participate in every transaction is known as:
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Wheel conspiracy
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What Act is a specialized conspiracy law frequently utilized against organized and white collar crime:
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RICO
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The crime of trying to get someone else to commit a crime:
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solicitation
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What is the name of the Model Penal Code test of attempt actus reus
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Substantial Step Test. Proximate - how close does a person have to come to completing a crime? How much has person done to complete crime? Step strongly corroborates defendant's criminal purpose.
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Which test examines whether an ordinary person who saw the defendant's acts without knowing her intent would believe she was determined to commit the intended crime:
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unequivocally test
