Stages of Crime (By:Prasahant Vilas Budgude)
Stages
of Crime
Authored By:Prasahant Vilas Budgude
Modern Law College LLM
o Abstract:
Criminal
law is a body that defines the acts which are illegal and can affect the
individual, property, society. Crime threatens and harms public welfare and
safety. Moreover, criminal law is different from civil law as the latter
emphasizes more on providing resolution rather than punishment. Whenever a
crime happens and that too intentionally, there is a full-fledged process or
stages behind it. In case of every crime, Firstly there is an intention to
commit it, Secondly, preparation to commit it, Thirdly, attempt to commit it
and Lastly the accomplishment. The law of crimes as old as the civilisation
itself. The crime and the criminal in every society is looked with great
hatred, but the study of the crimes and discovering the causes of crimes have
remain the greatest attraction among the jurists of the jurisprudence. There
always lies necessity of devising some ways and methods to curb such criminal
tendencies among the section of the people living in the civilised society. The
problem arises as to what acts should be forbidden, or what acts should be
selected for punishment by the society or the State. The concept of the crime
has been always been dependent on the public opinion
Bentham
defined Crime as, “offences are whatever the legislature has banned/prohibited
for good or for bad reasons. If the question relates to a theoretical research
for the discovery of the best possible laws according to the principles of
utility, we give the name of offence to every act which we think ought to be
prohibited by reasons of some evil which it produces or tends to
produce.” Blackstone in his commentaries on the Law of the England has
defined Crime as “an act committed or omitted in violation of a Public Law
either forbidding or commanding it.” Stephen has suggested a modification
in the Blackstone’s version of definition on Crime and states that, “A
crime is a violation of a right, considered in reference to the evil tendency
of such violation as regards the community at large.” Austin posits
that, “A wrong which is pursued at the discretion of the injured party and
his representatives is a civil injury; a wrong which is pursued by the
sovereign or his subordinates is a crime.”
o
Key Words:
Crime, intention, Indian Penal
Code, attempt, offence.
o Elements of Crime:
The Chief elements necessary to constitute a crime are:
- A human
being under a legal obligation to act in a particular way and a fit
subject for the infliction of appropriate punishment;
- An evil
intent on the part of such a human being;
- An act
committed or omitted in, furtherance of such an intent;
- An injury
to another human being or to society at large by such act
The act must have been done by
a human being before it can constitute a crime punishable at law. In the
ancient legal institutions of punishment being inflicted on animals or
inanimate objects for injury caused by them. It changed gradually with the
mature thinking of the people. The right of punishment was taken away from the
individuals and was transferred to the society. The society undertook to do
everything for the individual what he far so far doing for himself. It is a
matter of pride that the ancient Hindu criminal jurisprudence did not provide
for the trial and punishment of animals and inanimate objects.
They presumed that the
offender must be a human being who must have developed maturity of
understanding to know the nature of the act of which he is held liable.
Therefore, only a human being is under an obligation and capable of being
punished can be the proper subject of criminal law. Corporations and other
artificial persons known to modern jurisprudence are not capable of being
punished, for appropriate punishment means both pecuniary and bodily punishment
and the latter cannot be inflicted upon artificial persons.
o
Mens Rea:
It is one of the principles of
the English criminal law that a crime is not committed if the mind of person
doing the act in question is innocent. It is said that actus non facit
reum, nisi mens sit rea (the intent and act must both concur to constitute
the crime). Although, prima facie and as a general rule, there must
be a mind at fault before there can be a crime, it is not an inflexible rule,
and a statute may relate to such a subject-matter an may be so framed as to
make an act
criminal whether there has
been any intention to break the law or otherwise to do wrong or not. In Sherras
vs. De Rutzen (1895), the doctrine followed by court states that mens rea is an
essential ingredient of every offence, except in three cases:
- Cases not
criminal in any real sense but which in the public interest are prohibited
under a penalty, e.g. Revenue acts
- Public
Nuisance
- Cases
criminal in form but which are really only a summary mode of enforcing a
civil right.
The maxim actus non facit
reum, nisi mens sit rea has, however, no application to the offences under
the penal code in its purely technical sense, because the definitions of
various offences contain expressly propositions as to the state of mind of the
accused. The definitions state whether the act must have been done “intentionally”,
“voluntarily”, “knowingly”, “dishonestly”, or “fraudulently”, or the like.
Every ingredient of the offence is stated in the definitions. So, mens rea will
mean one thing or another according to the particular offence. The guilty mind
may thus be a fraudulent mind, dishonest mind, negligent or rash mind. Every
offence under the code virtually imports the idea of criminal intent or mens
rea in some form or other. If, in any case, the Indian legislature has omitted
to prescribe a particular mental condition, the presumption is that the
omission is intentional. In such, the doctrine of mens rea is not applicable.
o
Actus Rea:
Actus Reus is the Latin term
used to describe a criminal act. Actus Reus is commonly defined as a criminal
act that was the result of voluntary bodily movement. This describes a physical
activity that harms another person or damages property. Anything from a
physical assault or murder to the destruction of public property would qualify
as an actus Reus.
The exception to actus Reus is
when the criminal actions are involuntary. This includes acts that occur as a
result of a spasm or convulsion, any movement made while a person is asleep or
unconscious, or activities participated in while an individual is under a
hypnotic trance. In these scenarios a criminal deed may be done, but it is not
intentional and the responsible person
will not even know about it
until after the fact.
o
Stages of Crime:
Crime is a human conduct that is
believed to be inimical to the social interest. According to Blackstone a crime
is an act committed or omitted in violation of a public law either forbidding
or commanding it. The purpose of criminal law is to express a formal social
condemnation of forbidden conduct, buttressed by sanctions calculated to
prevent it. Indian Penal Code (IPC) does not define crime. Section 40 of IPC
states that an offence denotes a thing made punishable by the Code. Broadly in
every crime there are four stages in the commission of an offence. The first
stage exists when the culprit first entertains the idea or intention to commit
an offence. In the second stage he makes preparations to commit it. The third
stage is when he attempts to commit it. If the third stage is successful then
finally the actual commission of the offence takes place.
a.
Intension
The first stage exists when the culprit first entertains the idea or
intention to commit an offence. In this stage, the motive and plan to commit
the crime is facilitated. However, at this stage, no offence is punishable
because the intention is a mental concept which is very difficult to prove with
certainty. Intent is more complex. Oblique intent can be said to exist where
the defendant embarks on a course of conduct to bring about a desired result.
knowing that the consequence of ms actions will also bring about another
result. Eg - D intends to kill his wife. He knows she is going to be on a
particular airplane and places a bomb on that airplane He knows that his
actions will result in, the death of the other passengers and crew of the
airplane even though that may not be part of his desire In carrying out the
action ln this situation D is no less culpable in killing the passengers and
crew than in killIng his wife as he knows that the deaths will happen as a
result of his actions
b. Preparation-
In the second stage, the culprit makes the preparation to commit the crime.
Necessary resources required to commit the offence are gathered at this stage.
Preparation and intention alone are not punishable under IPC as there is a
possibility that the accused can retract from committing the offence. However,
the offences of waging war, dacoity, counterfeiting coins and depredation on
territories of Power at peace with Government are punishable at the preparation
stage as even preparation of such acts is considered as a crime against the
society. As this stage, the intention to
cause harms starts manifesting itself in the form of physical actions.
Preparation consists of arranging or building things that are needed to commit
the crime. For example purchasing poison. In general, preparation is not
considered a crime because it cannot be proved beyond.
For example, purchasing knife with an intention to kill someone is not a crime because it cannot be determined whether the knife was bought to kill someone or to chop vegetables and therefore preparation means to arrange the necessary measures for the commission of the intended criminal act.
Intention alone or the intention followed by a preparation is not enough to constitute the crime. Preparation has not been made punishable because in most of the cases the prosecution has failed to prove that the preparations in the question were made for the commission of the particular crime.
illustration If A purchases a pistol and keeps the same in his pocket duly loaded in order to kill his bitter enemy B, but does nothing more. A has not committed any offence as StilI he is at the stage of preparation and it will be impossible for the prosecution to prove that A was carrying the loaded pistol only for the purpose of killing B.
For example, purchasing knife with an intention to kill someone is not a crime because it cannot be determined whether the knife was bought to kill someone or to chop vegetables and therefore preparation means to arrange the necessary measures for the commission of the intended criminal act.
Intention alone or the intention followed by a preparation is not enough to constitute the crime. Preparation has not been made punishable because in most of the cases the prosecution has failed to prove that the preparations in the question were made for the commission of the particular crime.
illustration If A purchases a pistol and keeps the same in his pocket duly loaded in order to kill his bitter enemy B, but does nothing more. A has not committed any offence as StilI he is at the stage of preparation and it will be impossible for the prosecution to prove that A was carrying the loaded pistol only for the purpose of killing B.
c. Attempt:
It means an act towards the commission of the offence which fails due to
circumstances independent of the attempter’s will. It fails owing to the
external factors which are beyond the control of the attempterA person commits
the offence of ‘attempt to commit a particular offence’ when
1. He intends to commit a particular offence.
2. He makes preparation for it.
3. Does any act towards its commission
An attempt to commit an offence begins when the preparation ends and a step
towards the commission of an offence is taken however such step should be
indicative of the intention to commit an actual crime there must be a proximate
relation between the two i.e. if the interruption was not caused due to
external factor, crime would have been the only result.
A person is said to commit an offence of attempt also in the cases in which
he voluntarily desists i.e. repents before the attempt is completed from the
actual commission of the crime.
An attempt is made punishable because every attempt though it fails, must
create or cause alarm which of itself is an injury to the society. It is
necessary to prove for an offence of attempt is that the accused had gone
beyond the stage of preparation. An act will amount to mere preparation if the
person on his accord, gives it up before the criminal act is carried out.
In order to determine whether a given set of acts constitute attempt or
preparation, the test is that whether the overt acts already done are such that
if the person changes his mind and does not proceed further the acts already
done would be completely harmless.
If they would be so, it would amount to preparation only but where the
thing done is such if not prevented by any extraneous cause would fructify into
the commission of the offence, it would amount to an attempt to commit the
offence.
An act which is impossible to commit cannot be attempted and so is not
culpable. However such impossibility must be absolute and not relative. For
example if a person shoots a shadow, it shall not be attempt because the
commission of such act is impossible but if a person tries to steal from an
empty pocket it is an attempt because it is an act towards the commission of
the offence and failure of accused is not due to his own act.
Section 511. Punishment for attempting to
commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other
imprisonment-Whoever attempts to commit offence punishable by this Code with
imprisonment for life or imprisonment, or to cause such an offence to be
committed, and in such attempt does any act towards the commission of the
offence, shall, where no express provision is made by thy Code for the
punishment of such attempt, be punished
with imprisonment of any description provided for the offence, for a term
which may extend to one-half of the imprisonment for life or, as the case may
be, one-half of the longest term imprisonment for that offence, or with such
fine as is provided for the offence or with both.
Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission
of such offence shall be punished in IPC. In the case of GIAN
KAUR V. STATE OF PUNJAB it was held that right to life under
Article 21 of the Constitution does not include right to die or right to be
killed.
d. Accomplishment:
This is the last stage of crime. At this stage, the offence is committed or
is completed i.e. the accused succeeds his attempt and causes the injury.
Finally, at this stage, the accused is held guilty for the commission of
offence and is punished according to the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
If an act remains confined to the first two stages there is, in general, no
criminal liability. If intention and preparation were made punishable it would
be impossible to prove that the object of an accused was to commit an offence.
It is in the third stage that the liability arises. Whether the act is in the
second stage or it has entered the third stage is a matter of evidence.
o
Difference Between Attempt
& Preparation:
Attempt to commit crime is punishable, whereas preparation is not. This is
because preparation would generally be a harmless act, e.g. attempt to commit
murder creates a disturbance in the society and the sense of insecurity in an
individual, while preparation may not create alarm in society. According to
Indian penal Code an attempt is a continuous proceeding which at one stage
assumes criminal character.
1. In Sudhir kumar Mukharjee v. State of W.B (12) , Supreme
Court held that, attempt to commit an offence begins when the preparation are
complete and the culprit commences to do something with the intention of
committing the offence and which is a step forward toward the commission of the
offence.
2. In Abhyanand Mishra v. State of Bihar (13) , Supreme court
held that, the movement culprit commences to do an act With the necessary
intention, he commences his attempt to commit an offence. Such an act need not
be the penultimate act towards the commission of that offence but must be an
act during the course of committing that offence.
o
Reference:
1.
The Indian Penal Code, 1860 – K.D. Gaur, Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt.
Ltd, 2016.
2.
The Indian Penal Code, 1860 – Rattan Lal and Dhiraj Lal, Lexis Nexis
Butterworths Wadhwa, 2017.
3.
Indian Penal Code, 1860 – S.N. Mishra, Central Law Publication Company,
2017.
4.
Essay on Indian Penal Code, 1860 – K.N. Chandrashekhar, Pillai, Universal
Law Publication, 2017
o Conclusion:
Through this research and
finding of my research project of on Stages of Commission of crime it is
concluded that the each and every stage must be taken into account for charging
someone as an offender or criminally liable and it is essential that all the stages
are fulfilled or satisfied simultaneously and if even one stage is absent it
will not amount to crime under IPC. For the commission of crime by person
involves four stages viz, formation of the intention or mental element,
preparation for commission of crime, acting on the basis of preparation,
commission of the act resulting in an event proscribed by law.