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Casebook Read Credits
Criminal Law
Section 5 . 1
half an hour

Causation

Sam Kamin,
Dana Lindenberg

Not every crime requires that the defendant cause a particular harm. Burglary is breaking and entering at night with the intent to commit a felony. But some crimes -- principally homicide -- require that the defendant cause a particular harm. In many of these cases, causation is easily shown; for example, the defendant stabbed or shot the victim and the victim died. In the ones below, we consider harder cases, where the link between the defendant's conduct and the victim's harm is more attenuated.

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