Transcript Chapter 6

Chapter 6
Offenses Against Persons
Four basic groups of
offenses against persons
 Assault, battery, and mayhem
 Homicidal crimes – murder, manslaughter,
and suicide
 Sexual offenses – rape, sodomy, and abortion
 False imprisonment and kidnapping
Murder, manslaughter, suicide, rape and sodomy
were common-law felonies; the remaining
offenses were classified as misdemeanors.
Assaultive Offenses
 Assault - a threat to someone
 Battery – touch
 Aggravated Assault – a threat to
someone with a weapon
 Aggravated Battery – physical contact
with a weapon
Assaultive Offenses Continued:
 The California Penal Code defines an
assault as “an unlawful attempt, coupled
with a present ability, to commit a violent
injury on the person of another.”
 The California Penal Code defines as
battery “any willful and unlawful use of
force or violence upon the person of
another.”
Assaultive Offenses continued:
Burden of the Prosecution
To convict a defendant of simple assault or
battery, prosecution only needs to prove
the act and the defendant’s general
intent, unless there is intent to commit a
specific felony, for example, murder.
Then the prosecution has to prove the
defendant’s specific intent to accomplish
those results.
Assaultive defenses continued:
Defenses to Charges of
Assault and Battery
A person charged with battery may defend
by showing that the touching or hitting
was unintentional, physical force used
was reasonable, or that the action was
taken in self-defense.
Assaultive defenses continued:
 Stalking – A person is knowingly follows
another person or places a person under
surveillance or combination of both and
threatens them or places that person in
reasonable apprehension of bodily harm,
sexual assault, confinement, or restraint.
Assaultive defenses continued:
 Mayhem – willfully and maliciously
injuring another so as to render the victim
less able to fight.
 Aggravated mayhem – a specific-intent
crime because the statute proscribing it
refers to the perpetrator’s intent to do
some further act like permanently disable
the victim.
Homicide
 Homicide - Taking the life of one human being
by another.
 Murder – unlawful killing of one person by
another with “malice aforethought.”
 Manslaughter – unlawful killing of one human
being by another when no malice is involved.
 Voluntary Manslaughter – intentional unlawful
killing that occurred in the heat of passion as a
result of provocation.
 Involuntary Manslaughter – unintentional
killing of another by gross negligence of
accused.
Homicide continued:
Approach to Homicide
 First degree murder – requires either malice
aforethought or premeditation.
Intent to kill.
 Second degree murder – requires proof that
accused was guilty of imminently dangerous or
outrageous conduct.
Depraved mind or heart.
 Felony murder – accused unintentionally
killed someone while committing or attempting
to commit, common-law felonies like burglary,
arson, rape, or robbery.
Homicide continued:
Approach to Homicide
 Justifiable homicide – taking another life by
authority of the law (ex: executioner performing
a duty).
 Excusable homicide – inadvertent taking of
another life when the actor is not guilty of
criminal negligence (ex: death occurring from
unavoidable traffic accident).
 Vehicular homicide – killing of someone by
the operation of a motor vehicle in a reckless
manner.
Homicide continued:
 Corpus delicti – body of crime.
The prosecution must show that the
victim died as a result of a criminal act.
 Proximate cause – The cause nearest a
given effect in a causal relationship.
Homicide continued:
When does death occur?
When irreversible cessation of total
brain functions ceases.
Homicide continued:
 One year and a day rule – if more than
a year and a day intervened between the
injury inflicted by the accused and the
victim’s death, the person who caused
the injury could not be held criminally
responsible for the victim’s death.
Suicide
 Suicide – intentional taking of one’s own
life by destruction.
 Assisted suicide – an offense of aiding
or assisting a person to take his life.
Sexual Battery
 Common-law rape or forcible rape – having
unlawful carnal knowledge (sexual intercourse)
by force and against their will.
 Statutory rape – having sexual intercourse
with a female child under the age of 10 with or
without the child’s consent (see Iowa Code for
specific rules).
 Marital exception – a husband could not be
guilty of raping his wife.
Hale’s Rule – English common law
credited to Sir Matthew Hale, holding that a
husband could not be charged with rape of his
wife.
Sexual Battery continued:
 Gender-neutral offense – a law or
practice that applies equally to males and
females nondiscriminatory.
 Rape shield law – a law that protects the
identity of a rape victim or prevents
disclosure of a victim’s sexual history.
Sexual Battery continued:
 Sexual penetration – sexual intercourse,
cunnilingus, fellatio, anal intercourse, or any
other intrusion of any part of a person’s body or
of any object into the genital or anal openings
of another person’s body, but emission of seed
is not required.
 Sexual contact – intentional touching of the
victim’s intimate parts or the intentional
touching of clothing covering the immediate
area of the victim’s intimate parts.
Sexual Battery continued:
 Rape trauma syndrome – a recurring pattern
of physical and emotional symptoms
experienced by rape victims.
 Megan’s Law – a law requiring convicted sex
offenders who are released from prison, move
into the state, or change their addresses to
register with local law enforcement agencies.
This is in memory of Megan Kanka, a 7
year old, who was raped and killed in 1994.
Sexual Battery continued:
Defenses to charges of sexual battery:
 The most common is consent from the
victim. Except in cases where the victim
is underage because they are legally
incapable of consenting to sex.
 Impotency – inability to engage in
intercourse.
Sodomy
This is considered an offense against
morality.
In some cases, sodomy is charged in
addition to sexual battery in instances of
rape involving forcible oral or anal
intercourse.
Abortion
 Willful bringing about of the miscarriage
of a pregnant woman.
 Roe v. Wade – (1973) held that a fetus
was not a “person” within the meaning of
the 14th Amendment to the US
Constitution. So the fetus was not
protected by law.
Abusive Offenses
Child Abuse:
Actions that physically, mentally, or morally
endanger the welfare of a child.
Spousal Abuse:
Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse of one’s
husband or wife.
Abuse of the Elderly:
Physical abuse, neglect, fiduciary abuse,
abandonment, isolation, or other treatment
resulting in physical harm or pain or mental
suffering.
False Imprisonment and
Kidnapping
 False Imprisonment – confining
someone against their will.
 Kidnapping – unlawful taking and
forcible carrying away (asportation) of a
victim without consent.
False Imprisonment and
Kidnapping
 Child Snatching – one parent
deliberately retains or conceals a child
from the other parent.
Civil Rights Offenses
 Rights protected by the federal and state
constitutions and statutes. The right to
be free from unlawful discrimination.