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31 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
“but for” cause
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cause in fact (also called sine qua non cause); the actor’s conduct sets in motion a chain of events that, sooner or later, leads to a result; see factual (“but for”) cause.
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mens rea
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the “state of mind” the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt; criminal intent from an evil mind; the mental element in crime, including purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence.
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attendant circumstances
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a circumstance connected to an act, an intent, and/or a result required to make an act criminal.
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blameworthiness (also called “culpability”)
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the idea that we can only punish people who we can blame, and we can only blame people who are responsible for what they do.
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causation
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requirement that criminal conduct cause a harm defined in the criminal code.
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cause in fact
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the objective determination that the defendant’s act triggered a chain of events that ended as the bad result, such as death in homicide.
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concurrence
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the requirement that actus reus must join with mens rea to produce criminal conduct or that conduct must cause a harmful result.
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culpability
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blameworthiness based on mens rea; deserving of punishment because of individual responsibility for actions.
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defense of excuse
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defenses based on the idea that what the defendant did was a crime but under the circumstances he wasn’t responsible for what he did (insanity).
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factual (“but for”) cause
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conduct that, in fact, leads to a harmful result.
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failure-of-proof theory (defense)
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defendant disproves the prosecution’s case by showing he or she couldn’t have formed the state of mind required to prove the mental element of the crime.
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general intent crime
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intent to commit the actus reus—the act required in the definition of the crime.
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general intent plus
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“general intent” refers to the intent to commit the actus reus of the crime and “plus” refers to some “special mental element” in addition to the intent to commit the criminal act.
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intervening cause
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the cause that either interrupts a chain of events or substantially contributes to a result.
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knowledge (in mens rea)
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consciously acting or causing a result.
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legal (proximate cause)
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the main cause of the result of criminal conduct.
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legal cause
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a subjective judgment as to whether it’s fair and just to blame the defendant for the result; cause recognized by law to impose criminal liability.
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liability
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the technical legal term for “responsibility.”
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motive
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the reason why a defendant commits a crime.
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negligence
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the unconscious creation of substantial and unjustifiable risks.
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objective fault
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requires no purposeful or conscious bad mind in the actor; it sets a standard of what the “average person should have known.”
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principle of causation
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requirement that criminal conduct cause a harm defined in the criminal code.
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principle of concurrence
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some mental fault has to trigger the actus reus in criminal conduct crimes and the cause in bad-result crimes; see concurrence.
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proximate cause
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the main cause of the result of criminal conduct; legal cause.
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purpose (in mens rea)
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the specific intent to act and/or cause a criminal harm.
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purposely
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acts taken for the very aim of engaging in conduct or causing a criminal result.
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recklessness
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the conscious creation of substantial and unjustifiable risk.
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specific intent
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the attitude represented by subjective fault, where there’s a “bad” mind or will that triggers the act; the intent to do something beyond the actus reus.
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strict liability
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liability without fault, or in the absence of mens rea; it’s based on voluntary action alone.
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subjective fault
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fault that requires a “bad mind” in the actor.
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superseding cause
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the cause that relieves from responsibility (liability) the party whose act started the series of events which led to the result because the original conduct is no longer the proximate cause.
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