Criminal Law

301 Pages·1989·29.352 MB·English

by  Marise Cremona BA, LLM (auth.)

Macmillan Professional Masters
Criminal Law
Macmillan Professional Masters
Titles in the series
Constitutional and Administrative Law John Alder
Cost and Management Accounting Roger Hussey
Criminal Law Marise Cremona
Data Processing John Bingham
Land Law Kate Green
Management Roger Oldcorn
Office Administration E.C. Eyre
Study Skills Kate Williams
Forthcoming titles
Company Accounts Roger Oldcorn
Contract Law Ewan McKendrick
Employee Relations Chris Brewster
Landlord and Tenant Law Godfrey Cole and Margaret Wilkie
Marketing Robert G.l. Maxwell
Personnel Management Margaret Attwood
Supervision Mike Savedra and John Hawthorn
Criminal Law
Marise Cremona BA, LLM
Principal Lecturer in Law
at the City of London Polytechnic
Law series editor
Marise Cremona
Principal Lecturer in Law
at the City of London Polytechnic
M
MACMILLAN
ISBN 978-0-333-43412-3 ISBN 978-1-349-19928-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19928-0
© Marise Cremona 1989
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989 978-0-333-43411-6
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to
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First published 1989
Published by
MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by TecSet Ltd., Wallington. Surrey
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Cremona, Marise
Criminallaw.-(Macmillan professional
masters).
1. England. Criminal law
I. Title
344.205
ISBN 978-0-333-43413-0 (paperback export)
v
Contents
Preface X
Table of Cases xi
Table of Statutes xix
Part I BASIC PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY
I Introduction 3
1.1 The scope of this book 3
1.2 Characteristics of criminal law 3
1.3 Judge and jury 5
1.4 The burden of proof 8
1.5 Classification of offences 10
1.6 Law reform 11
Summary 12
Case notes 13
Exercises 13
2 The external elements 14
2.1 The elements of a criminal offence 14
2.2 Different aspects of the actus reus 15
2.3 Omissions in the actus reus 16
2.4 Different approaches to omissions 17
2.5 The voluntary nature of the actus reus 19
2.6 Automatism 20
Summary 21
Case notes 22
Exercises 24
3 The mental element 25
3.1 The mental element in a criminal offence 25
3.2 Coincidence of actus reus and mens rea 26
3.3 Transferred mens rea 28
3.4 Different types of mens rea 29
3.5 The meaning of intention 29
3.6 The meaning of recklessness 33
3.7 The meaning of negligence 36
3.8 Proof of mens rea 37
Summary 39
Case notes 40
vi Contents
Exercises 42
Workshop 42
4 Causation 44
4.1 Causation in the criminal law 44
4.2 Factual causation 44
4.3 Legal causation 45
4.4 The reasonable foresight rule 46
4.5 Pre-existing condition of the victim 47
4.6 Action by the victim 48
4. 7 More than one cause 49
4.8 Intervention by a third party 50
Summary 53
Casenotes 53
Exercises 55
5 Strict and vicarious liability 57
5.1 The meaning of strict liability 57
5.2 The approach of the courts to strict liability 59
5.3 The future of strict liability 60
5.4 Vicarious liability 62
5.5 The criminal liability of corporations 64
Summary 66
Casenotes 67
Exercises 69
Workshop 69
Part II OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON
6 Assaults 73
6.1 Common law and statutory assaults 73
6.2 Common law assault 73
6.3 Assault occasioning actual bodily harm 76
6.4 Malicious wounding 76
6.5 Wounding with intent 79
6.6 Maliciously administering poison 80
6.7 Other statutory assaults 83
6.8 Proposals for reform 85
Summary 86
Casenotes 88
Exercises 91
Workshop 91
7 Sexual offences 92
7.1 The scope of sexual offences 92
7.2 The actus reus of rape 92
7.3 The mens rea of rape 95
Contents vii
7.4 Indecent assault 96
7.5 Unlawful sexual intercourse 98
7.6 The problem of proof 98
Summary 99
Case notes 100
Exercises 101
Workshop 101
8 Murder 103
8.1 The different forms of homicide 103
8.2 The actus reus of murder 104
8.3 The mens rea of murder 106
8.4 Intention in murder 108
Summary 109
Case notes 110
Exercises 112
Workshop 112
9 Manslaughter 113
9.1 Voluntary manslaughter 113
9.2 Provocation under the Homicide Act 1957 114
9.3 Constructive manslaughter 117
9.4 A dangerous act 119
9.5 Reckless manslaughter 119
9.6 Causing death by reckless driving 122
Summary 123
Case notes 124
Exercises 128
Workshop 128
Part III OFFENCES AGAINST PROPERTY
10 Theft 131
10.1 The definition of theft 131
10.2 Property 132
10.3 Belonging to another 134
10.4 The extended meaning of belonging to another 137
10.5 Appropriation 140
10.6 Dishonesty 144
10.7 Intention of permanently depriving 148
10.8 The application of section 6 150
Summary 152
Case notes 153
Exercises 158
Workshop 158
vm Contents
11 Deception offences 160
11.1 The deception offences 160
11.2 Obtaining property by deception 161
11.3 Obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception 167
11.4 Obtaining services by deception 167
11.5 Evasion of liability by deception 169
11.6 Making off without payment 171
Summary 174
Case notes 175
Exercises 177
Workshop 177
12 Other offences against property 178
12.1 Robbery 178
12.2 Burglary 179
12.3 The different types of burglary 182
12.4 Handling stolen goods 184
12.5 The different ways of handling stolen goods 187
12.6 The mens rea of handling 190
12.7 Criminal damage 191
Summary 194
Case notes 194
Exercises 197
Workshop 198
Part IV DEFENCES
13 Excuses and lack of capacity 203
13.1 Defences 203
13.2 Infancy 204
13.3 Insanity 205
13.4 Diminished responsibility 210
13.5 Intoxication 211
Summary 214
Case notes 215
Exercises 217
Workshop 217
14 Other defences 219
14.1 Mistake 219
14.2 Consent 223
14.3 Self-defence 227
14.4 Duress and necessity 231
Summary 237
Case notes 238
Exercises 242
Workshop 242
Contents IX
Part V PARTICIPATION IN CRIME
15 Complicity in crime 247
15.1 Principals and accessories 247
15.2 Types of accessory 249
15.3 The mens rea of the accessory 250
15.4 Innocent and semi-innocent principals 252
Summary 255
Case notes 256
Exercises 257
Workshop 257
16 Inchoate offences 259
16.1 The inchoate offences 259
16.2 Incitement 260
16.3 Conspiracy 262
16.4 Attempt 266
16.5 Impossibility and the inchoate offences 269
Summary 272
Casenotes 273
Exercises 275
Workshop 275
Bibliography and further reading 277
Index 283