Criminal Law

LAW 207 · 4 units · Winter Quarter

Criminal Law examines the substantive law of crimes—the principles that define what conduct is criminal and what mental state is required. Unlike criminal procedure, which addresses how the criminal justice system operates, substantive criminal law focuses on the elements of specific crimes and the doctrines that determine criminal liability. Students study the foundational requirements for criminal responsibility: actus reus (guilty act) and mens rea (guilty mind), the principles of complicity and accessory liability, and specific crimes including homicide, assault, sexual assault, property crimes, and crimes against public order.

The course emphasizes how criminal law balances punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation while protecting individual rights. Students examine how courts interpret statutes and common law crimes, how prosecution must prove every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and how defenses limit criminal liability. The course provides essential background for criminal procedure, legal ethics, and all aspects of criminal practice.

Criminal Law is studied across one course (Criminal Law I: Substantive) and typically continues in Criminal Procedure I in the spring, which addresses procedural rights and protections. Together, these courses provide comprehensive understanding of the American criminal justice system.

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the elements required for criminal liability: actus reus and mens rea
  • Apply different levels of mens rea: purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence under the Model Penal Code
  • Analyze specific crimes including homicide (murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide)
  • Study assault and battery, sexual assault, and crimes against the person
  • Examine property crimes: theft, embezzlement, robbery, burglary, and arson
  • Understand complicity and accomplice liability for crimes committed by others
  • Apply defenses to criminal liability: self-defense, necessity, insanity, intoxication, and duress

Required Casebook

Criminal Law: Cases and Materials (5th ed., Kadish, Schulhofer, Steiker & Barkacs, 2020) — Aspen Publishers. This comprehensive casebook covers substantive criminal law using the Model Penal Code framework, with careful attention to how statutes define crimes and how courts interpret criminal law.

Lecture Topics

Week 1: Introduction to Criminal Law

Nature of criminal law, burden of proof (beyond reasonable doubt), sources of criminal law (statutes, common law), and the purposes of punishment (retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation).

Week 2: Actus Reus (Guilty Act)

Requirement of voluntary conduct, omission liability and duties to act, and status crimes. Criminal liability requires a culpable act, not merely thoughts or status.

Week 3: Mens Rea (Guilty Mind)

Model Penal Code levels of culpability: purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence. Transferred intent and specific intent vs. general intent crimes.

Week 4: Homicide—Murder

Murder elements, intent to kill, depraved heart murder, felony murder rule. Common law murder vs. statutory murder classifications (first degree, second degree).

Week 5: Homicide—Manslaughter and Negligent Homicide

Voluntary manslaughter and the heat of passion doctrine, involuntary manslaughter through recklessness or gross negligence, and negligent homicide distinctions.

Week 6: Crimes Against the Person

Assault and battery definitions, sexual assault and rape including statutory rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and domestic violence offenses.

Week 7: Theft and Property Crimes

Larceny, embezzlement, false pretenses, and statutory theft. Robbery as crime against person combined with theft. Receiving stolen property.

Week 8: Burglary, Arson, and Other Property Crimes

Burglary elements including dwelling requirement, nighttime requirement, and intent to commit a felony. Arson, criminal mischief, and property crimes distinctions.

Week 9: Complicity and Accessory Liability

Accomplice liability: aiding and abetting, natural and probable consequences doctrine, and liability for crimes committed by principals. Accessory before and after the fact.

Week 10: Defenses—Self-Defense and Defense of Others

Reasonableness of force, duty to retreat, initial aggressor status, and imminence requirement. Defense of property, including use of force to protect land and chattels.

Week 11: Defenses—Excuse and Justification

Insanity (M'Naghten, Irresistible Impulse, Durham), intoxication (voluntary and involuntary), necessity, duress, and diminished capacity. Mistake of law and fact.

Landmark Cases

Regina v. Dudley & Stephens (1884)

Classic case addressing necessity and duress defenses. Sailors adrift at sea with insufficient food killed the weakest to survive. Court held necessity does not justify murder—the duty to die rather than kill innocents is absolute. Establishes strict limits on necessity defense.

State v. Wanrow (1977)

Addressed self-defense for domestic violence victim. Woman killed man who had threatened her; jury instructions failed to consider woman's perspective, stature, and previous threats. Established that reasonableness standard must account for defendant's circumstances and reasonable fear.

People v. Beeman (1984)

Addressed accomplice liability and aiding and abetting. Requires that the accomplice know of the principal's unlawful purpose and intend to commit, encourage, or facilitate that crime. Knowledge without intent is insufficient.

Model Penal Code §2.03 (Transferred Intent)

When conduct creates recklessness with respect to one person or property, and results in harm to another person or property, the recklessness is transferred. Important for homicide when defendant intends to kill one person but kills another.

Commonwealth v. Malone (1946)

Addressed depraved heart murder (implied malice). Defendant and victim played Russian roulette; court held that acts evincing a extreme recklessness of human life constitute implied malice, supporting murder conviction even without intent to kill.

Study Guide

Criminal Liability Framework

Every crime requires proof of two elements: (1) actus reus (guilty act), and (2) mens rea (guilty mind). Both must be present and must correspond to the act and result.

Actus Reus (Guilty Act)

Definition: A voluntary act or omission that constitutes the physical element of a crime. Pure thought or intention is insufficient.

  • Voluntary Act Requirement: Act must be conscious exercise of will. Reflex actions, acts during unconsciousness, and acts during sleepwalking do not satisfy actus reus
  • Omission Liability: Generally, criminal liability requires an affirmative act. Omissions rarely result in criminal liability unless there is a legal duty to act (parent/child, contractual duty, duty to rescue in some jurisdictions)
  • Possession: Possession of contraband (drugs, stolen goods) can constitute actus reus if knowing and voluntary
  • Status Crimes: Generally unconstitutional. Mere status (being homeless, being drunk) cannot be criminalized without an act

Mens Rea (Guilty Mind)

Definition: The mental state or intent required by the statute for criminal liability. Levels of mens rea under the Model Penal Code:

  1. Purpose (Intent): Defendant acts with the conscious objective that the result will occur. Highest culpability. Example: defendant shoots victim with intent to kill (murder)
  2. Knowledge: Defendant is aware that the result is practically certain to occur. Example: defendant starts fire knowing building is occupied (arson)
  3. Recklessness: Defendant consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur. Example: defendant drives 100 mph through residential area
  4. Negligence: Defendant should have been aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk. Lower culpability; criminal negligence requires gross negligence

Strict Liability Crimes: Some crimes require no mens rea at all. Typically involving public welfare offenses (selling alcohol to minors, selling mislabeled food). Constitutional limits apply; strict liability crimes cannot impose imprisonment for crimes of moral turpitude.

Homicide Analysis

Homicide—unlawful killing of another human being—is divided into murder and manslaughter based on intent and circumstances:

  • Murder: Unlawful killing with malice aforethought. Includes:
    • Intent to kill
    • Intent to cause serious bodily harm
    • Depraved heart (extreme recklessness with extreme indifference to human life)
    • Felony murder (death during commission of inherently dangerous felony)
  • Voluntary Manslaughter: Unlawful killing with intent to kill but with mitigating circumstances—heat of passion (immediate response to provocation without cooling off period)
  • Involuntary Manslaughter: Unlawful killing without intent to kill, but through recklessness or commission of unlawful act

Defenses to Criminal Liability

Justification Defenses: Conduct was legal because the circumstances made it lawful.

  • Self-Defense: Use of reasonable force to prevent imminent harm. Requirements: (1) threat of imminent harm, (2) reasonable belief of necessity, (3) proportional response. Must account for defendant's perspective (including reasonable fear based on size, prior threats)
  • Defense of Others: Use of reasonable force to protect third parties
  • Defense of Property: Use of force to protect property. Generally only non-deadly force permitted
  • Necessity: Conduct necessary to avoid imminent harm and the harm avoided is greater than the harm caused. Does not apply to murder

Excuse Defenses: Defendant's culpability is negated by circumstances; conduct was wrongful but defendant is not responsible.

  • Insanity: Defendant was mentally ill and either (M'Naghten) did not know the nature/quality of act or know it was wrong, OR (Irresistible Impulse) could not control conduct due to mental illness
  • Intoxication: Voluntary intoxication negates specific intent crimes but not general intent crimes. Involuntary intoxication may excuse even general intent crimes
  • Duress: Defendant committed crime under threat of immediate death or serious bodily harm, had no opportunity to escape, and did not place self in situation likely to result in duress
  • Mistake: Honest mistake of fact may negate mens rea. Mistake of law (defendant didn't know conduct was illegal) is generally no defense

Exam Strategy

  • Always identify the specific crime charged and its elements
  • Analyze both actus reus and mens rea separately
  • Determine what level of mens rea the statute requires (purpose, knowledge, recklessness, negligence)
  • For homicide, determine whether intent to kill exists; if not, examine depraved heart or felony murder
  • Address all available defenses, even if weak
  • Distinguish between justification (conduct was lawful) and excuse (defendant not responsible)
  • Remember that prosecution must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt
  • Consider both common law and statutory definitions of crimes

Practice Questions

MBE-style and essay questions covering homicide analysis, crimes against persons and property, mens rea, actus reus, and defenses. Work through scenarios requiring identification of crimes and application of defenses.

Additional Resources

  • Model Penal Code (American Law Institute) — Reference for mens rea levels (§2.02), specific crimes, and defenses; widely adopted as framework
  • State Criminal Statutes — Study your jurisdiction's definitions of specific crimes; they vary from MPC
  • Homicide Decision Tree — Visual guide to determining whether killing constitutes murder, voluntary manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter
  • Mens Rea Chart — Compare purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence with examples of each
  • Defense Elements Flowchart — Guide to analyzing self-defense, necessity, insanity, and other defenses
  • Property Crimes Outline — Organize larceny, embezzlement, robbery, burglary, and receiving stolen property by elements and distinctions
  • Complicity and Accomplice Liability Cases — Study cases illustrating when one person's guilt extends to another's

Flashcards

Master criminal law fundamentals: Actus reus, Mens rea, Purpose, Knowledge, Recklessness, Negligence, Murder, Voluntary manslaughter, Involuntary manslaughter, Self-defense, Duress, Insanity, Felony murder, Robbery, Burglary, Larceny, Accomplice liability. Spaced repetition ensures retention of crime elements and defenses.