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 Complicity: assisting or encouraging a crime |
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Author: Robert Wilson
of
5th Floor Wentworth Chambers
This is an extract from Lawbook Company's Nutshell: Criminal Law by Robert Wilson (Sydney: LBC, 1999, 4th ed). LBC Nutshells are the essential revision tool: they provide a concise outline of the principles for each of the major subject areas within undergraduate law. Written in clear, straightforward language, the authors clearly explain the principles, and highlight key cases and legislative provisions for each subject.
The general principle (discussed in The general principle of criminal law) concerns itself mainly with the criminal liability of the perpetrator, ie, there may be more than one perpetrator, as where two defendants jointly attack a victim and cause her or his death: Mohan (1967) AC; Merriman (1971) All ER . But criminal liability does not rest only with the perpetrators. The law extends criminal responsibility in three ways:
(a) in the law of attempt it strikes at those who try to commit a crime but fail (and hence cannot be classified as perpetrators);
(b) in the law of conspiracy it attaches criminal responsibility to those who organise the commission of the crime by the perpetrators; and
(c) in the law of complicity it strikes at persons who assist or encourage the perpetrators to commit a crime and who thereby become accomplices.
Conspiracy and attempt are dealt with below as antecedent crimes. The present chapter is concerned with complicity, ie., the criminal liability of accomplices. In this area of the law precise terminology is important.
Robert Wilson
BA LLM
Barrister
Wentworth Chambers
1999
March, 2001
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