Law of Crimes-I

Law-402
Md. Hasnath Kabir Fahim
LL.B. (Hons.), LL.M. (First Class First)
Lecturer
School of Law
Chittagong Independent University (CIU)

http://www.ciu.edu.bd/sol-faculty.html#?id=8
https://www.linkedin.com/in/md-hasnath-kabir-fahim-40bb60177/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fWrWKIwAAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Md_Hasnath_Fahim
https://iiuc.academia.edu/HasnathKabirFahim
 Definition of Crime
• It is very difficult to give correct and precise definition
of crime.
• The word ‘Crime” comes from the Latin word
“cernere” that means to judge. Another Latin word
“crimen” denotes judgment offence. For this reason,
crime can be said as harmful act or omission against
the public which the State wishes to prevent and which,
upon conviction, is punishable by fine, imprisonment,
and/or death. No conduct constitutes a crime unless it is
declared criminal in the laws of the country.
 Definition of Crime-2
• It is also a social disorder.
• It has legal definition that recognized legally harmful,
anti-social, immoral or sinful behavior.
• A crime is an act committed or omitted, in violation of
a public law, either forbidding or commanding it; a
breach or violation of some public right or duty due to
a whole community, considered as a community.
• Stephen has defined “crime as an act committed or
omitted, in violation of a public law either forbidding
or commanding it.”
 Nature of Crime
• Nature of elements Crime is a formal social
condemnation of forbidden conduct buttressed
by sanction calculated to prevent it.
• The fundamental elements of crime must be
committed with criminal intent which is
legally termed as mens rea. It is bound to the
Latin maxim “Actus non facit reum nisi mens
sit rea”. 
 What is Criminal Law?
• Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime.
It regulates social conduct and prescribes whatever
is threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to
the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of
people. It includes the punishment of people who
violate these laws. Criminal law varies according to
jurisdiction, and differs from civil law, where
emphasis is more on dispute resolution and victim
compensation than on punishment.
 Elements of Crime
• Mens Rea
• Actus reus
• Intention
• Motive
• Preparation
• Commission & Omission
 Mens Rea
• Mens Rea refers to criminal intent.
• The literal translation from Latin is "guilty mind."
The plural of mens rea is mentes reae. A mens rea​
refers to the state of mind statutorily required in
order to convict a particular defendant of a
particular crime.
• Establishing the mens rea of an offender is usually
necessary to prove guilt in a criminal trial. 
• Mens rea, a person's awareness of the fact that his 
or her conduct is criminal, is the mental element.
 Actus reus 
• Actus reus is the Latin term used to describe a criminal
act.
• very crime must be considered in two parts-the
physical act of the crime (actus reus) and the mental
intent to do the crime (mens rea). 
• Actus reus is commonly defined as a criminal act that
was the result of voluntary bodily movement. This
describes a physical activity that harms another person
or damages property. Anything from a physical assault
or murder to the destruction of public property would
qualify as an actus reus.
 Intention
• Intention is mainly the purpose and design to commit a
certain crime.
• Intention may be either ‘mere intention’ or ‘constructive
intention’.
• No act or omission is crime unless done with malafide
intention.
• Mere intention is not punishable. When the bad
intention is within the mind, it is not an offence.
• When a mere intention is shared with a third party to
commit a crime, it turns into constructive crime.
 Motive
• Both the motive and intention are the desire of
any criminal.
• When the desire is immediate, it is intention.
• When the desire is remote or ultimate, it is known
as Motive.
• A motive to commit crime may b good, when the
intention can be unlawful.
• Law always considers the intention, not the
motive.
 Preparation
• In some of the offences, preparation to commit
crime is itself a crime, though no actual crime
is yet committed.

• Taking preparation and planning to commit a

crime may be punishable crime under the law
of country.
 Commission & Omission
• In crime, someone may be liable for
committing an unlawful act and sometimes for
non-commission of an act.

• Crime is that act done which ought not be have

done or which is undone which ought to have
done.
 Criminal Law of Bangladesh
• The Penal Code is the main criminal code of
Bangladesh.
• The Penal Code in its basic structure is a document that
consist of the list of all the punishments and cases that a
person who commits any kind of a crime is to be held
liable and charged with.
• The Code was passed on 6 October, 1860.
• The Code came into operation on 1 January 1862.
• The Code has 511 Sections in total.
• It is a comprehensive code that intends to cover all the
substantive aspects of criminal law.
 History of the Penal Code
• The first draft of the Penal Code was prepared by the First Law
Commission, chaired by Thomas Babington Macaulay. The draft
was based on the simple codification of the law of England,
while at the same time borrowing elements from the Napoleonic
Code and Louisiana Civil Code of 1825.
• The first draft of the Code was presented before the Governor-
General in council in the year 1837, but subsequent revisions and
amendments took two more decades. The complete drafting of
the code was done in 1850 and presented to the Legislative
Council in 1856.
• The code came into force on January 1st, 1862 after undergoing
many revisions and amendments by Barnes Peacock who would
go on to serve as the first Chief Justice of the Calcutta High
Court.
 History of the Penal Code-2
• Before the advent of the British, the penal law prevailing in
Indian sun-continent, for the most part, was the Muhammedan
law. For the first few years of its administration, the East India
Company did not interfere with the criminal law of the country
and although in 1772, during the administration of Warren
Hastings, the Company for the first time interfered, and
henceforth till 1861, from time to time, the British Government
did alter the Muhammedan law, yet up to 1862, when the Penal
Code came into operation, the Muhammedan law was
undoubtedly the basis of the criminal law excepting in the
presidency towns. The epoch of the administration of Muslim
criminal law in India extended for a considerable period and has
even supplied many terms for the vocabulary of Indian law.
Thank you!