Inchoate crime is an activity one performs when he/she prepares to commit a crime, but fails, or the activity is aborted before completion. Inchoate crimes in the United States and England are considered as incomplete crimes or imperfect crimes. According to the criminal statutes, the known incomplete crimes are crime attempt, soliciting, and conspiracy. In countries such as the United States and Canada, inchoate crimes are treated as lesser crimes and are not punishable as completed crimes. Incomplete crime can be attempted or aborted. The imperfect inchoate crime takes place when a person prepares to commit a crime and executes all the necessary steps towards committing the crime, but fails to achieve the target goal. The common examples of incomplete crimes include trying to rape, murder, and robbery. In certain countries, incomplete crime attracts a felony, and a person is charged with second-degree punishment.
Inchoate crimes are different from one another in the eyes of the law. Attempt is the crime committed when a person conducts the necessary steps towards a crime. Unlike agreeing to commit civil wrong and encouraging crime, an attempt is punishable according to the degree of closeness to conduct a civil wrong. Solicitation is the Actus Reus, where an individual has a thought of committing a crime and ask others to commit the crime. In many states penal code, agreeing to commit crime is punishable if the person’s intention is to commit the crime and encourage or command others to commit the crime. Unlike attempt and solicitation, conspiracy is the understanding and planned agreement of two or more parties to commit a crime. In the United States, if the conspirators agree to commit a civil wrong with illegal action, the law treats the action as crime. The court may lessen the punishment of conspiracy of the conspirator if he repents or one of the member repent.
The court punishes incomplete crimes to correct individuals who have guilty minds in the society. Inchoate crime should be punished to amend people who are capable and willing to commit crimes. A person who tries to commit murder is not supposed to stay in the society with other members; the society punishes guilty crimes to prevent other people from committing the actual crimes. Conspirators can destroy a community by making deals with another party to commit a crime in the community. If inchoate crimes are not punished, the society will face social problems, including murder, rape, robbery, and assault.
According to criminal statutes and law, joint venture is an association of two people or parties to perform an illegal business or act. Joint ventures might come together to form an illegal drug cartel or to commit murder. Joint ventures are criminally liable if the intention of the association is to inflict harm and injuries to others. If two people are in a joint venture and one person realizes the other is planning to commit a crime and continue to stay in the joint venture, the law treats both of them liable if the murder is committed. Joint ventures are criminally liable if the motive of the venture is illegal and uses illegal methods.
Elements of Criminal Law
In the United States, before a defendant is proven guilty and incarcerated, the court considers the essentials of crime behind the crime committed. The necessities of crime are the characters that an individual goes against that are mentioned in the criminal code. The elements of criminal law include; to be guilty of an offense, one should commit a crime (Actus Reus), have a guilty motive (Mens Rea). Actus Reus and Mens Rea must be done at the same time and causation occurred. The court should ensure a person is guilty of the crime beyond reasonable doubts. The guilty act is the activity that is performed to cause harm and is against the law or criminal code. A guilty person carrying out the crime should have a mind that is not innocent. In addition, the crime committed should result to harm like death, rape, or robbery.
Crime is the activity carried out that is illegal and punishable by authority or state. The two types of guilty act include property and personal crime. The main difference between personal crime and property crime is that personal crime inflicts harm to an individual and property crime involves physical damage of property. Personal crime such as assault is different from a battery, but the two are related. Assault is the intentional act in which a person is threatened of physical touch and this creates fears, while the battery is the actual physical touch that causes harm to a person. Further, larceny and robbery are different crimes, but related. Theft is the process where a person stole someone’s property without the owner’s consent. Unlike stealing, robbery is theft by force where the owner of the property is forced to give away his/her property. The rational policy behind criminal statute is to protect children and to ensure an individual is not convicted based on his/her characters including race, religion, and nationality.