CH. 6
psychologists call it “cognition”; the capacity to tell right from wrong
what is reason
establishes when you can be criminally liable for someone else’s
conduct; applies criminal liability to accomplices and accessories
what is complicity
try but failing to commit crimes
what are criminal attempts
the crime of killing a fetus
what is feticide
a noncriminal (civil) proceeding in which courts have the power to
decide if defendants who were insane when they committed their crimes are still insane
what is civil committment
most courts define it as psychosis, mostly paranoia and
schizophrenia
what is mental disease
participants before and during the commission of crimes
what are accomplices
the specific intent to commit a crime
what is attempt mens rea
killing in self-defense
what is justifiable homicide
the legal term that refers to a mental disease or defect that impairs the
reason and/or will to control actions
what is insanity
a failure-of-proof defense in which the defendant attempts to
prove that the defendant, incapable of the requisite intent of the crime charged, is
innocent of that crime but may well be guilty of a lesser one
what is diminished capacity
participants after crimes are committed
what are accessories
focus on dangerous conduct; they look at what remains
for actors to do before they hurt society by completing the crime
what are dangerous proximity tests
extremely reckless killings
what is depraved heart murder
establishes when a party can be criminally liable for someone
else’s conduct because of a relationship; transfers the criminal conduct of one party to
another because of their relationship
what is vicarious liability
when juvenile court judges use their discretion to transfer a juvenile
to adult criminal court
what is judicial waiver
an agreement to commit some other crime
what is conspiracy
determines if defendants have gone far enough toward
completing the crime that it’s unlikely they’ll turn back
what is probable desistance test
the act of killing by poisoning, striking, starving, drowning, and a
thousand other forms by which human nature can be overcome
what is murder actus reus
just about any form of human endeavor
what is enterprise
excuse that argues government agents got people to commit crimes
they wouldn’t otherwise commit
what is entrapment
the crime of conspiracy and the crime the conspirators agree to
commit are separate offenses
what is the Pinkerton rule
a “stroke of luck”—namely, a circumstance beyond the
attempter’s control that prevents the completion of the crime
what is extraneous factor
the common law rule that a husband who caught his wife in the act
of adultery had adequate provocation to kill
what is paramour rule
originally the mental state of intentional killing, with some
amount of spite, hate, or bad will, planned in advance of the killing
What is malice aforethought?