CRIMINAL LAW BOOK 1

Abberatio Ictus – mistake in blow. conditions to increase

the penalty of the offense and cannot be
Absolutory Causes - where the act committed is a offset by
crime but for some mitigating circumstances.
reason of public policy and sentiment, there is no
penalty imposed. Alternative Circumstances – Those which must be
Exempting and justifying circumstances are taken into consideration
absolutory causes. as aggravating or mitigating according to the nature
and effects of
Accomplices - Persons who do not act as principals the crime and the other conditions attending its
but cooperate in commission.
the execution of the offense by previous and
simultaneous acts, Amnesty – is an act of the sovereign power granting
which are not indispensable to the commission of the oblivion or general
crime. They act as pardon. It wipes all traces and vestiges of the crime
mere instruments that perform acts not essential to but does not
the perpetration extinguish civil liability.
of the offense.
Astucia – (Craft) involved the use of intellectual
Act – an overt or external act. trickery or cunning
on the part of the accused. A chicanery resorted to by
Actus Me Invito Factus Non Est Meus Actus – the accused to
Any act done by me against aid in the execution of his criminal design. It is
my will is not my act. employed as a
scheme in the execution of the crime.
Agent - subordinate public officer charged w/ the
maintenance of public
order and protection and security of life and property. Bill Of Attainder – A legislative act which inflicts
punishment
Aggravating Circumstances - Those which, if without trial.
attendant in the commission
of the crime, serve to have the penalty imposed in its
maximum period Commutation – change in the decision of the court
provided by law for the offense or those that change by the chief regarding
the nature of the degree of the penalty by decreasing the length of
the crime. the imprisonment
Generic - those which apply to all crimes. or fine.
Specific - those which apply only to specific
crimes. Consummated Felonies - when all the elements
Qualifying - those that change the nature of the necessary for its execution
crime. and accomplishment are present.
Inherent - which of necessity accompany the
commission of the crime, Continued Crime – refers to a single crime
therefore not considered in increasing the consisting of a series of
penalty to be acts but all arising from one criminal resolution.
imposed. Although there is
Special - those which arise under special a series of acts, there is only one crime committed, so

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only one
penalty shall be imposed.
Crime – acts and omissions punishable by any law.
Criminal law - A branch of municipal law which
defines crimes, treats
of their nature and provides for their punishment.
Cruelty – there is cruelty when the culprit enjoys and
delights in
making his victim suffer slowly and gradually,
causing unnecessary
physical pain in the consummation of the criminal
act.
Degree – one whole penalty, one entire penalty or
one unit of the
penalties enumerated in the graduated scales
provided for in Art. 71
Despoblado – (Uninhabited Place) one where there
are no houses at all,
a place at a considerable distance from town, where
the houses are
scattered at a great distance from each other.
Discernment - mental capacity to fully appreciate he
consequences of
the unlawful act, which is shown by the manner the
crime was committed
and conduct of the offender after its commission.
Disfraz (Disguise) – resorting to any device to
conceal identity.
Duress - use of violence or physical force.
Dwelling - must be a building or structure
exclusively used for rest
and comfort (combination of house and store not
included), may be
temporary as in the case of guests in a house or
bedspacers. It
includes dependencies, the foot of the staircase and
the enclosure
under the house.
En Cuadrilla – (Band) whenever there are more
than 3 armed malefactors
that shall have acted together in the commission of an
offense.
Entrapment - ways and means are resorted to for the
purpose of trapping
and capturing the lawbreaker in the execution of his
criminal plan.
Error in personae – mistake in identity.
Exempting Circumstances - grounds for exemption
from punishment
because there is wanting in the agent of the crime any
of the conditions
which make the act voluntary or negligent.
Ex Post Facto Law - An act which when committed
was not a crime,
cannot be made so by statute without violating the
constitutional
inhibition as to ex post facto laws.
Felonies – acts and omissions punishable by the
Revised Penal Code.
Fence – is a person who commits the act of fencing.
A fence who
receives stolen property as above- provided is not an
accessory but
a principal in the crime defined in and punished by
the Anti-Fencing
Law.
Fencing – is an act, with intent to gain, of buying,
selling, receiving,
possessing, keeping, or in any other manner dealing
in anything of
value which a person knows or should have known to
be derived from the
proceeds of the crime of robbery or theft.
Fraud (fraude) – insidious words or machinations
used to induce the
victim to act in a manner which would enable the
offender to carry
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out his design.
Instigation - Instigator practically induces the
would-be accused into
Good conduct allowance during confinement – the commission of the offense and himself becomes a
Deduction for the term of co-principal.
sentence for good behavior.
Insuperable Clause - some motive, which has
lawfully, morally or
Habitual Delinquency or Multi-recidivism – physically prevented a person to do what the law
Where a person within a commands.
period of ten years from the date of his release or last
conviction Irresistible Force - offender uses violence or
of the crimes of serious or less serious physical physical force to
injuries, robbery, compel another person to commit a crime.
theft, estafa or falsification, is found guilty of the said
crimes a
third time or oftener. This is an extraordinary Justifying Circumstances - where the act of a
aggravating person is in accordance
circumstance. with law such that said person is deemed not to have
violated the law.
Habitual Delinquent - A person who, within a
period of ten years
from the date of his release or last conviction of the Mistake of Fact - misapprehension of fact on the
crimes of part of the person
serious or less serious physical injuries, robbery, who caused injury to another. He is not criminally
theft, estafa, liable.
or falsification, is found guilty of any said crimes a
third time or Mitigating Circumstances - those which if present
oftener. in the commission
of the crime reduces the penalty of the crime but does
not erase
Ignominy – is a circumstance pertaining to the moral criminal liability nor change the nature of the crime.
order, which
adds disgrace and obloquy to the material injury
caused by the crime. Nullum Crimen, Nulla Poena Sine Lege – There is
no crime when there is
Imbecile - one while advanced in age has a mental no law punishing it.
development comparable
to that of children between 2 and 7 years old. He is
exempt in all Obscuridad – (Night time) that period of darkness
cases from criminal liability. beginning at the end
of dusk and ending at dawn.
Insane - one who acts with complete deprivation of
intelligence/reason Omission – failure to perform a duty required by
or without the least discernment or with total law.
deprivation of freedom
of will. Mere abnormality of the mental faculties will
not exclude Pardon – an act of grace proceeding from the power
imputability. entrusted with the

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execution of laws, which exempts the individual from
the punishment
the law inflicts for the crime.
Parole – consists in the suspension of the sentence of
a convict after
serving the minimum term of the indeterminate
penalty, without granting
pardon, prescribing the terms upon which the
sentence shall be
suspended. In case his parole conditions are not
observed, a convict
may be returned to the custody and continue to serve
his sentence
without deducting the time that elapsed.
Penalty – suffering inflicted by the State for the
transgression
of a law.
Period – one of 3 equal portions, min/med/max of a
divisible penalty.
A period of a divisible penalty when prescribed by
the Code as a
penalty for a felony, is in itself a degree.
Person In Authority - public authority, or person
who is directly
vested with jurisdiction and has the power to govern
and execute
the laws.
Plurality Of Crimes – consists in the successive
execution by the same
individual of different criminal acts upon any of
which no
conviction has yet been declared.
Praetor Intentionem - lack of intent to commit so
grave a wrong.
Prescription Of A Crime – is the loss/forfeiture of
the right of the
state to prosecute the offender after the lapse of a
certain time.
Prescription Of Penalty - means the loss/forfeiture
of the right of
government to execute the final sentence after the
lapse of a
certain time.
Probation - a disposition under which a defendant
after conviction and
sentence is released subject to conditions imposed by
the court and to
the supervision of a probation officer.
Proximate Cause - the cause, which in the natural
and continuous
sequence unbroken by any efficient intervening
cause, produces the
injury, without which the result would not have
occurred.
Quasi-Recidivism – Where a person commits felony
before beginning to
serve or while serving sentence on a previous
conviction for a
felony. This is a special aggravating circumstance.
Rank - The designation or title of distinction used to
fix the
relative position of the offended party in reference to
others
(There must be a difference in the social condition of
the offender
and the offended party).
Recidivism – Where a person, on separate occasions,
is convicted of
two offenses embraced in the same title in the RPC.
This is a
generic aggravating circumstance.
Recidivist – one who at the time of his trial for one
crime, shall
have been previously convicted by final judgment of
another crime
embraced in the same title of the RPC.
Reiteracion or Habituality – Where the offender
has been previously
punished for an offense to which the law attaches an
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equal or greater
penalty or for two crimes to which it attaches a
lighter penalty.
This is a generic aggravating circumstance.

Stand Ground When in The Right - the law does

not require a person
to retreat when his assailant is rapidly advancing
upon him with a
deadly weapon.

Treachery – when the offender commits any of the

crimes against the
person, employing means, methods or forms in the
execution thereof
which tend directly and specially to insure its
execution without
risk to himself arising from the defense which the
offended party
might make.

Uncontrollable Fear - offender employs

intimidation or threat in
compelling another to commit a crime.

Unlawful Entry - when an entrance is effected by a

way not intended
for the purpose.

Youthful offender – over 9 but under 18 at time of

the commission
of the offense.

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