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CONTINUING CRIMES

CONTINUING CRIME

Single crime consisting of a series of acts arising from a single criminal resolution or
intent not susceptible of division.

REQUISITES
1. Plurality of Acts;
2. Unity of Penal provision infringed upon; and
3. Unity of Criminal Intent and Purpose

ONE LARCENY DOCTRINE

For prosecution of theft cases, the one larceny doctrine provides that the taking
of several things, whether belonging to the same or different owners, at the same time
and place, constitutes one larceny only so long as there is a single criminal impulse.

Examples:

1. Insurrection, Rebellion, Subversion, and other crimes and offenses committed

in the furtherance, on the occasion thereof, or incident thereto
2. Eight robberies as component parts of a general plan.

How Applied

Whenever the Supreme Court concludes that the criminals should be

punished only once, because they acted in conspiracy or under the same criminal
impulse:

- It is necessary to embody these crimes under one single information.

- It is necessary to consider them as complex crimes even if the essence
of the crime does not fit the definition of Art. 48, because there is no
other provision in the RPC.

REAL OR MATERIAL PLURALITY VS. CONTINUING CRIME

REAL OR MATERIAL PLURALITY CONTINUING CRIME

There is a series of acts performed by the offender.
As to the Number of Crimes Committed
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Each act performed constitutes a The different acts constitute only one
separate crime because each act is crime because all of the acts performed
generated by a criminal impulse arise from one criminal resolution.

EXAMPLES ON REAL PLURALITY:

1. The act of firing one’s revolver twice in succession, killing one person and
wounding another.
2. Two persons are killed one after another by different acts.

TRANSITORY CRIME VS. CONTINUING CRIME

Offense where some acts material and essential to the crimes and requisite to their
commission occur in one territory and some acts are done in another.

The theory is that a person charged with a transitory offense may be tried in any
jurisdiction where the offense is in part committed.

EXAMPLES:
1. Estafa – its necessary elements (deceit and damage) may take place in different
territorial jurisdictions
2. Violation of BP No. 22 (Bouncing Checks Law)