Essay on Crime

Essay on Crime Inchoate Crimes Inchoate crime is legally defined by the law as a preparedness of an individual to be involved in a crime. Inchoate crimes are sometimes referred to as incomplete crimes since the people intending to commit the crime is stopped by the law from committing the offence before he/she commits the perceived crime. Most of the times inchoate crime often criminals attempt to engage in criminal activity. The laws of several countries describe inchoate crimes as illegally deemed conducts that do not involve an action of an actual harm given that the law serves an obligation of trying to prevent the damage from occurring (Ashworths et al., 454). It is important to note that inchoate crimes involve both direct and indirect actions of crime participation. Inchoate crimes are classified into three parts which include; solicitation, conspiracy and attempt to commit a crime (Utset, 52). Types Of Inchoate Crimes Try To Commit A Crime; An attempt to commit a crime is defined as an inchoate crime since the individuals trying to commit a crime are more often trying to engage themselves in criminal activity to no avail of fulfilling their intended actions. Some examples of attempted crime involve threats and blackmail. Try to get to committing crimes are often precipitated by challenges that individuals go through. Conspiracy is a type of an inchoate crime whereby people come into an agreement with another party in the verge of committing a crime. Conspiracy to commit a crime is an indirect involvement in a criminal activity and therefore referred to as inchoate crime. Persons found guilty to involve in the conspiracy to perform an illegal activity are liable to the wrath of the laws despite the fact that they were not participating in the crime itself. Solicitation, on the other hand, is an inchoate crime whereby a person who intends to commit a crime does not personally engage in a crime but asks another person to commit the offense on their behalf. According to the international standards of legal justice, the person involved in a solicit crime should be charged with a criminal offense even if they do not commit the crime (Van et al., 71). A good example of a solicitation crime is that of murder where an individual pays someone or a group to kill. Defenses That Show That an Actor Did Not Have The Mental Ability To Form The Necessary Intent To Commit A Crime Sometimes individuals may be forced to commit a crime beyond their expectations. Some of the reasons that people often give a defense to committing a crime without their intent include; self-defence, threat, and blackmail or drug influence. People may defend themselves to have committed a crime due to the threat that they receive from perpetrators. For instance, an individual whose loved one has been kidnapped may be involved in a conspiracy crime of failing to report such a case to the police due to threat and blackmail information they received from the criminal. Such individuals due to fear are forced to give into the demands of the major crimes for the sake of their loved one safety. In other instances, people may be involved in non-intended criminal activity when trying to defend themselves from something they perceive to be harmful to their well being. For example, a rape victim who frees his/herself from the perpetrators by use of force and pain infliction to the perpetrator i s considered to have acted in self-defense. However, not all cases of defenses are accepted by the law to be the cause of mental ability to perform an intent crime. For instance; Constitutional requirements do not accept influence of alcohol as a defence to an individual involvelvement in criminal activities ( Sieber, 19). Two Elements Of A Crime The main elements of any criminal acts are illegal act/ actus reus and criminal intent/mens rea. A criminal act described as an individual action to get involved in a criminal act or unlawfully omitting a legal act. Mens Rea, on the other hand, is a criminal element which determines the cause of an individual to engage in a criminal and whether the individual had the right state of mind to justify his/her intent to commit a crime.