Criminal Liability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Criminal Liability - Essay Example However, it is worth mentioning in this regard that accusing or adjourning someone to have criminal liabilities, depend on various aspects which generally includes due concentration on the age of the accused, his/her intentions and his/her personal traits, in case it signifies any kind of disability. Emphasising on this notion, the discussion henceforth will intend to develop a general perspective regarding criminal liability of any person, rendering specific ideas concerning the factors which should be considered when accusing someone as a legal offender. The idea generated through the analysis of criminal liability and its defining factors, an analysis of Donnie’s criminal liability will also be portrayed in the discussion. A General Perspective of Criminal Liability The perception of criminal liability is often described as the guilt to perform such acts which apparently harms the well-being of any individual either psychologically or physically along with inhibiting the in terests of the society by a large extent. The notion of criminal liability principally arises due to the breach of a defined code of law with the perpetration of any sort of offensive behaviour which is against the defined codes (Sistare, 1989). It has been viewed that the fundamental assumption in relation to criminal activity signifies the presence of both physical as well as psychological factors when committing the offense to treat the offender as a criminal (RSC, n.d.). Furthermore, a particular individual who commits an unlawful act is considered to be criminally liable, provided the person performs an activity which is against the legal codes being influenced by the factors such as negligence, intention to injure or damage and recklessness (USIP, n.d.). It is worth mentioning in this context that criminal liability can be classified under three distinctive concepts, namely, culpability, capacity, and responsibility. Under the classification of culpability, the crime is believ ed to be committed purposefully, where the wrong doer is found to be completely aware of the consequences. Similarly, capacity intends to verify the age or the mental state of the criminal which impose a strong influence towards committing such acts. However, responsibility intends to elaborate on the willingness of the criminal to conduct such illegal act presuming that he was not forced by any material factors, such as money, threat or similar other elements. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the criminal liability must be justified under all the three concepts to verify a â€Å"corpus delicti rule† (NCWC, 2003). A criminal offense can also be committed by a person acting recklessly i.e. not caring at all about the effects or consequences of the unlawful activities performed by them. Furthermore, by law, in the case of any criminal liability offence, the accused person should have performed any kind of voluntary or involuntary physical activity/activities. The idea of voluntary physical action denotes the fact that the happening or rather the execution of the offensive act was under the control of the accused and thereby deliberating that the person had disregarded his/her minimum responsibility to control their intention of damage.