Criminal law (lecture 1)

Intro to crime
What is a Crime?
A crime is defined as a criminal wrong doing whether by omission or commission which is
forbidden by the state, therefore resulting in punishment.
Society lays down what we can and cannot do. When we choose to go against the general
interests of society this is known as wrongful conduct. We are all morally taught and when we
choose to go against this it is also known as a wrongful doing.
There are many types of behaviour that we may deem as anti-social such as passive smoking or
even wearing to much perfume or aftershave on public transport. However this kind of anti-
social behaviour would not be deemed as criminal.
However people who choose to not wear a seatbelt (unless heavily pregnant) would be seen as
committing a criminal act.
It all varies from society to society the types of conduct which are considered criminal. It was
not a criminal act for a man to rape his wife until 1991, it can be seen here that general
attitudes within society changes over time and therefore over time our attitudes towards
criminal wrong doings also change.
There are three classifications of offences:-

 Indictable Offences-Serious offences triable by judge and jury

 Summary Offences-Offences only triable by the Magistrates Court
 Either way offences- Offences triable either summarily or on indictment

Elements of a Crime
There are two elements that need to be present for a person to be found guilty for a crime
committed:-

 Actus Reus-The guilty act

 Mens Rea-The guilty mind
It is very important when establishing whether a person committed a crime to consider
whether or not the person behaved in a particular way to commit the wrong doing and also it is
important to establish whether the person had the mental attitude to match the behaviour.
Both these elements must be proven and satisfied beyond reasonable doubt with an absence of
a defence for a crime to occur.