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Inchoate offense
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Criminal law |
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| Part of the common law series |
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| Inchoate offenses |
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| Portals: Law · Criminal justice |
An inchoate offence is the crime of preparing for or seeking to commit another crime. It has been defined as "Conduct deemed criminal without actual harm being done, provided that the harm that would have occurred is one the law tries to prevent."[1] It is a "crime about crime."[citation needed] This term is also called an inchoate crime or inchoate offense.[citation needed]
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Every inchoate crime or offense must have the mens rea of intent.[citation needed] Absent a specific law, an inchoate offence requires that the defendant have the specific intent to commit the underlying crime. For example, for a defendant to be guilty of the inchoate crime of solicitation of murder, he or she must actually intend for that person to die.[citation needed]
Intent may be distinguished from Recklessness and Criminal negligence as a higher mens rea.
Specific intent may be inferred from circumstances.[citation needed][2] It may be proven by the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur or "dangerous proximity".[citation needed]
A true inchoate offence occurs when the intended crime is not perpetrated since the Doctrine of Merger prohibits charging both, except for conspiracy.
There can be various causes of failing the commission of the underlying crime, for example arrest prior to committing the crime, accident which prevents the crime, or even factual impossibility.[citation needed] For example, the defendant takes a gun that he believes is loaded, points it at the victim, and with the intent to kill the victim, pulls the trigger. The gun is not loaded, however, and the victim runs away. In this case, the defendant would be guilty of the inchoate crime of attempted murder, even though it was actually impossible for the defendant to commit the underlying crime, murder.
Examples of inchoate offences include conspiracy, solicitation, facilitation, misprision of felony, RICO, and attempt, as well as some public health crimes; see the list below.[citation needed]
