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General Principles: Actus Reus

Elements of Crimes

Elements of crime are what the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to convict defendants.

Based on these elements, there are two types of crimes:

Crimes of Criminal Conduct

Legally speaking, conduct means an act triggered by intent.

Put more technically, criminal conduct is the concurrence of criminal intent and action.

Crimes of Cause and Result

These are crimes in which criminal conduct causes a harm that the law specifically prohibits.

Elements of Crimes of Criminal Conduct

There are three basic elements that must be shown to prove a crime:

Actus Reus
  • The criminal act.
  • This is the physical element of the crime.
  • It is also called the objective element because it can be determined without reference to the intent of the actor.

Mens Rea

  • The Criminal Intent
  • The mental element
  • Sometimes called the subjective element because intent resides in the person who has it.

Concurrence

Means that the act and the intent are joined in the exact sense that the criminal intent sets the criminal act in motion.

Crime of Criminal Conduct Example: Burglary

  • Actus Reus: breaking and entering
  • Concurrence: Act joined with the criminal intent
  • Mens Rea: the intent to commit a crime inside the house (usually stealing)
  • The key thing about these types of crimes is that they are criminal even when they cause no harm beyond the conduct itself.

Elements of Crimes of Cause and Result

  • Actus Reus
  • Mens Rea
    •
  • Concurrence
  • Causation
  • Resulting Harm

Note that the first three elements are the same as crimes of criminal conduct.

It is the addition of causation and a resulting harm that makes these offenses different.

Examples of Results

  • Murder: must result in a death
  • Arson: must result in a burning
  • Battery: must result in a bodily injury

Concurrence

    In all crimes consisting of conduct that causes a particular result, the requirement of concurrence applies not only to the union of action and intention, but also the union of conduct and the cause of a particular result.

    That is, there must be two concurrences:

  1. The joining of the act and intent
  2. The joining of criminal conduct with the cause of the particular result.

General Principles of Criminal Liability

The five elements previously discussed are referred to as the general principles of criminal liability.

These can be applied to any crime and serve as a general model for us to understand crimes by.

Voluntariness of the Actus Reus

The criminal act must be voluntary—a product of free will.

Reflexes and spasms are not voluntary.

The King v. Cogdon

Because she was sleepwalking, the act of killing was not intended

Thus, murder could not be proven and the defendant was acquitted.

Status as Actus Reus

  • Status refers to who we are.
  • Sex, age, race, ethnicity are examples.
  • Generally, status cannot be considered a criminal act.
  • For example, merely being a heroin addict cannot be a criminal act (Robinson v. California).

Criminal Omissions

  • Failure to act when required to do so can satisfy the Actus Reus requirement.
  • There are two basic forms of omission:
  • Simply failing to act—e.g., reporting child abuse
  • Failure to intervene to prevent injury or death to persons or damage and destruction of property.
  • The failure to act must be a legal duty; such legal duties are brought on in three ways:
  1. Statutes
  2. Contracts
  3. Special Relationships

Types of Duties

  • Statutes create legal duties such as the duty to file a tax return, to report accidents, and to register firearms.
  • Police officers are contracted to "protect and serve"; failing to do so can create criminal liability.
  • The most common special relationship is between parents and children.

Omissions of Moral Duties

  • Failure to perform moral duties is not necessarily criminal; it depends on the jurisdiction.
  • There are two approaches:
  1. The good Samaritan doctrine "imposes a legal duty to render or summon aid for imperiled strangers."
  2. Most jurisdictions follow the American bystander rule—there is no legal obligation to rescue or call help

Possession

  • The possession of some things, such as weapons, illegal drugs, stolen property, and pornography, can qualify as a criminal act.
  • Possession is itself not an action, but one has to act in order to gain possession.

Actual & Constructive Possession

Possession can either be actual or constructive.

Actual possession means physical possession—the substance or item is on the person of the possessor.

Constructive possession requires that the possessor know what they possess and that they are in a position to exercise dominion or control over it, either personally or through others.

Knowing v. Mere Possession

Knowing possession means that possessors are aware of what they possess.

E.g., those who buy drugs knowing that they are drugs knowingly possess drugs—the don’t have to know that the possession is illegal, just what it is they have.

Mere possession means that possessors don’t know what they possess.

One who does a friend a favor by carrying a brown paper bag without knowing that the bag contains stolen money has mere possession of the money.

Most states (Washington & North Dakota Excluded) require knowing possession in order to satisfy the actus reus in the form of possession.

 

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