Criminal Law Definitions:
Abetting: Encouraging or assisting someone to commit a crime but not causing the result.
ABH: Actual bodily harm, e.g. broken finger, fractures etc.
Actus reus: The guilty act.
Aiding: Actual assistance, without consensus or causation.
Automatism: An act done by the body without consensus from the mind, e.g. committing an offence while sleeping.
Battery: An act by which one person intentionally or recklessly inflicts unlawful force on another.
'But for...' test: The test for factual causation: but for D's actions, would V have suffered the injury?
Chain of causation: The link between the initial act of the defendant and the consequence.
Common assault: An act by which one person intentionally or recklessly causes another person to apprehend immediate and unlawful force.
Conduct crime: An offence in which the actus reus is concerned with the unlawful behaviour rather than the consequences, e.g. careless driving (without causing actual damage).
Counselling: A form of assistance to someone to commit a crime, but not causing the result.
Deception: Words/actions to induce someone into believing something that is false.
Direct intention: The ordinary meaning of intention - purpose or aim.
Factual causation: A link between the act and the consequence in fact, established by the 'but for' test.
GBH: Serious bodily harm, e.g. broken arm, broken nose etc.
Incitement: Encouraging/inducing another to commit an offence.
Insanity: A defect of reason in the mind, meaning that D didn't know the nature and quality of his act, or that what D was doing was wrong.
Intervening act: A novus actus interveniens - something significant that happens after D's act that breaks the chain of causation, e.g. D breaks V's finger, V falls down stairs a month later and dies.
Manslaughter: Unlawful killing of a person without the direct intention of doing so.
Mens rea: The guilty mind.
Murder: Unlawful killing of a person within the Queen's Peace, with intention to cause death or GBH.
Recklessness: Culpable risk-taking.
Result crime: where the actus reus of the offence requires proof that the conduct caused a prohibited result or consequence, e.g. the actus reus of the offence of criminal damage is that property belonging to another must be destroyed or damaged.
Thin-skull rule: 'Take your victim as you find them' - even if they are particularly susceptible to harm.
Wound: A break in the continuity of the skin.
ABH: Actual bodily harm, e.g. broken finger, fractures etc.
Actus reus: The guilty act.
Aiding: Actual assistance, without consensus or causation.
Automatism: An act done by the body without consensus from the mind, e.g. committing an offence while sleeping.
Battery: An act by which one person intentionally or recklessly inflicts unlawful force on another.
'But for...' test: The test for factual causation: but for D's actions, would V have suffered the injury?
Chain of causation: The link between the initial act of the defendant and the consequence.
Common assault: An act by which one person intentionally or recklessly causes another person to apprehend immediate and unlawful force.
Conduct crime: An offence in which the actus reus is concerned with the unlawful behaviour rather than the consequences, e.g. careless driving (without causing actual damage).
Counselling: A form of assistance to someone to commit a crime, but not causing the result.
Deception: Words/actions to induce someone into believing something that is false.
Direct intention: The ordinary meaning of intention - purpose or aim.
Factual causation: A link between the act and the consequence in fact, established by the 'but for' test.
GBH: Serious bodily harm, e.g. broken arm, broken nose etc.
Incitement: Encouraging/inducing another to commit an offence.
Insanity: A defect of reason in the mind, meaning that D didn't know the nature and quality of his act, or that what D was doing was wrong.
Intervening act: A novus actus interveniens - something significant that happens after D's act that breaks the chain of causation, e.g. D breaks V's finger, V falls down stairs a month later and dies.
Manslaughter: Unlawful killing of a person without the direct intention of doing so.
Mens rea: The guilty mind.
Murder: Unlawful killing of a person within the Queen's Peace, with intention to cause death or GBH.
Recklessness: Culpable risk-taking.
Result crime: where the actus reus of the offence requires proof that the conduct caused a prohibited result or consequence, e.g. the actus reus of the offence of criminal damage is that property belonging to another must be destroyed or damaged.
Thin-skull rule: 'Take your victim as you find them' - even if they are particularly susceptible to harm.
Wound: A break in the continuity of the skin.