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Criminal Law
Section 5 . 2 . 1
22 minutes

Actus Reus

Sam Kamin,
Dana Lindenberg

In a free society, thinking about committing a crime is not enough to make a defendant legally responsible for attempting it, or of committing any other crime. Rather, it must be shown that the defendant took some steps toward the commission of the offense (and, as we'll see, have a sufficiently culpable mental state). But just how far down the road from thinking about a crime to preparing to commit it, to actually committing it, must a defendant travel before it is fair to convict him of attempting to commit it?

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