NCJ Number
108424
Date Published
1987
Length
343 pages
Annotation
This book examines some of the problems of determining criminal responsibility under the criminal law, such as act, intention, definition, cause, complicity, and a failed or attempted offense.
Abstract
As the basis for examining the requirements of an adequate criminal code, the book discusses the inadequacies of the Ten Commandments that must be resolved in modern criminal codes. Whereas the Ten Commandments do not allow for exemptions or exceptions, the criminal law must allow for the varying intentions and circumstances associated with prohibited injurious acts. In examining exceptions to culpability in injurious acts, the discussion considers such notions as necessity and duress, threat and temptation, killing and letting die, and seduction and persuasion. Whereas the Ten Commandments do not define the acts they prohibit, a criminal code should precisely define offenses to the extent of distinguishing between acts, omissions, and intentions. Other flaws in the Ten Commandments are failure to address states of mind, causation, complicity, and attempts to commit crimes. Borrowing extensively from analytical philosophy and experimental psychology, this book examines how the criminal law must address these issues. Chapter notes and subject index.