Elements of the Crime

No Crime with a law There can be no crime without law. If an act is to be prohibited, a legally authoritative body (such as Congress or a state legislature) must spell out in advance what behavior is banned. The U.S. Constitution forbids ex post facto laws, which declare certain acts to be illegal after the behavior occurs. The Constitution also requires that criminal laws be written in precise terms so that a citizen can determine what conduct is illegal.

No crime without a criminal act In American criminal justice, the government punishes people for what they do rather than for what they think or say. This is Actus Reus.

No crime without intent Intent pertains to the state of mind or mental attitude with which a person does an act. A synonym for intent, mens rea, literally means “guilty mind”. The mental design or purpose to commit a crime is the essence of intent.

Causation Many crimes include an element that actual harm must occur—in other words, causation must be proved. For example, homicide requires a killing, aggravated battery requires serious bodily injury and without those respective outcomes, those respective crimes would not be committed. A causal relationship between conduct and result is demonstrated if the act would not have happened without direct participation of the offender.[5] Causation is complex to prove. The act may be a "necessary but not sufficient" cause of the criminal harm. Intervening events may have occurred in between the act and the result. Therefore, the cause of the act and the forbidden result must be "proximate", or near in time.[1]

Concurrence In general, mens rea and actus reus must occur at the same time—that is, the criminal intent must precede or coexist with the criminal act, or in some way activate the act. The necessary mens rea may not continually be present until the forbidden act is committed, as long as it activated the conduct that produced the criminal act. However, for criminal liability to occur, there must be either overt and voluntary action or a failure to act when physically able as required by statute or law.

Venue State must prove where the crime occurred. All crimes must be tried in a court with the proper jurisdiction. All warrants must be signed by a judge with proper jurisdiction.

State of mind The defendant must be of sound mind at the time of the crime. This can be contested at the time of the trial. Insanity is a hard case to prove in court.

Aggravated assault 16-5-21 A person commits the offense of aggravated assault when he or she assaults or attacks: With intent to murder, rape or rob With an object, device or instrument Likely to or actually results in serious bodily harm.

Simple battery 16-5-23 Simple battery is when: 1.Intentionally makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature 2. Intentionally causes physical harm to another

Battery How does 16-5-23 differ from 16-5-23.1? The law adds “intentional substantial physical harm” to the wording. What is substantial physical harm? Blackened eye, swollen lips, substantial bruising

What if someone breaks a bone? Then the charge would be aggravated battery 16-5-24 says: “rendering a body part useless” does it say for how long? “Seriously disfiguring” a body part “Depriving them a member” of their body This is a felony: 1-20 years, if victim is over 65 it’s 5-20.