Crimes Basics
This is an action that the government prohibits and penalizes.
What is a crime?
Crimes typically committed by business professionals for financial gain.
What are white-collar crimes?
The principle that allows a business to be held responsible for crimes committed by its employees.
What is corporate criminal liability?
A civil wrong that interferes with a person or their property.
What is a tort?
Duty, breach, causation, and damages are the four required elements of this tort.
What is negligence?
Crimes punishable by less than one year in prison.
What are misdemeanors?
Intentionally deceiving someone in order to gain money or property.
What is fraud?
An agreement between two or more people to commit an unlawful act.
What is conspiracy?
A tort based on the failure to exercise reasonable care.
What is negligence?
This legal concept requires a connection between the defendant’s actions and the plaintiff’s injury.
What is causation?
Crimes punishable by more than one year in prison.
What are felonies?
The fraudulent conversion of property by a person who is trusted with it.
What is embezzlement?
Knowingly giving false testimony under oath in a judicial proceeding.
What is perjury?
Torts that involve deliberate actions, such as assault or battery.
What are intentional torts?
A defense that reduces a plaintiff’s recovery based on their percentage of fault.
What is comparative negligence?
The mental state required to commit a crime.
What is mens rea?
A federal law designed to prevent organized crime from investing illegal profits into legitimate businesses.
What is the RICO Act?
Destroying, altering, or falsifying records to interfere with an investigation.
What is obstruction of justice?
Liability imposed regardless of intent, often in inherently dangerous activities.
What is strict liability?
When a person knowingly accepts the risk of harm, this defense may apply.
What is assumption of the risk?
The physical act or omission involved in committing a crime.
What is actus reus?
A federal law that prohibits bribing foreign officials to gain business advantages.
What is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?
A federal law requiring corporate officers to certify financial statements and prohibiting document destruction to obstruct investigations.
What is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act?
Wrongful touching of another person without consent.
What is battery?
The famous case that established the rule of proximate cause in negligence law.
What is Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.?