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42 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Criminal attempts, criminal conspiracies, and criminal solicitation are all what kind of crimes?
All inchoate offense share two elements: the actus reus of taking some steps toward accomplishing the criminal purpose—but not enough steps to complete the intended crime, and
the mens rea of attempt
Which rationale looks at how close defendants came to completing their crimes?
the dangerous act rationale
The rationale for attempt crimes focuses on what two types of danger?
dangerous conduct and dangerous people
Physical proximity tests of the actus reus of attempt focus on
how close the defendant gets to committing the crime.
Which rationale concentrates on how fully defendants have developed their criminal purpose?
the dangerous precedent rationale
Which test asks whether defendants have reached a point where they’ve gotten control of everything they need to complete the crime?
the indispensable element test
Which test asks whether defendants have come “dangerously close” to completing the crime?
dangerous proximity to success test
Which test examines whether an ordinary person who saw the defendant’s acts without knowing her intent would believe she was determined to commit the intended crime?
the unequivocality test
Which test on whether defendants have gone far enough toward completing the crime that it’s unlikely they’ll turn back?
the probable desistance test
The Model Penal Code’s substantial steps test (also called the “MPC test”) was designed to accomplish three important goals. Which of the following is not one of those goals?
end all use of proximity and unequivocality tests with a clearer and easier-to-understand-and-apply test
A conspiracy where participants at one end may know nothing of those at the other end, but every participant handles the same commodity at different points, such as manufacture, distribution, and sale is known as
a chain conspiracy.
In most states, merely buying a gun with the intent of killing someone is considered
preparation and not a crime.
What has occurred when actors intend to commit crimes, and do everything they can to carry out their criminal intent, but the criminal law doesn’t ban what they did?
a legal impossibility
Which of the following would be a valid impossibility defense?
what the defendant plans to do to the victim is not a criminal act
Stabbing an already dead victim is an example of
a factual impossibility
Inchoate offenses punish people for crimes they’ve started to commit
but have not finished committing.
The defendant sees a car he wants to steal and breaks the window glass. The police interrupt. It turns out the car belongs to the defendant. The defendant
has a valid defense of legal impossibility.
The reason that legal impossibility will act as a defense to attempt and factual impossibility will not is because
it’s legally impossible to commit a crime that doesn’t exist.
To be a defense to attempt, the abandonment of the attempt must be
What kind of conduct poses the following dilemma: whether to punish someone who’s done no harm or to set free someone who’s determined to commit a crime?
incomplete criminal conduct
Legal impossibility is
a defense to attempt liability.
The core of conspiracy is
several people agreeing to commit a crime
Conspiracy actus reus consists of two parts: an agreement to commit a crime (in all states) and
an overt act in furtherance of the agreement (in about half the states).
Voluntary and complete abandonment of an attempt in progress is a defense to what liability in about half the states?
attempt liability
An important public policy justification for the crime of conspiracy is
the special danger of group criminality
Facts and circumstances that indicate an unspoken understanding between conspirators to commit a crime
are often sufficient to prove a conspiracy existed.
What is the name of the crime of agreeing with one or more people to commit a crime?
What is a criminal objective?
the criminal goal to commit a crime
Most modern statutes use the unilateral approach to conspiracy crimes. This means that
all of the conspirators do not have to intend to go through with the agreement to
commit the crime.
A conspiracy where one or more defendants participate in every transaction is known as
a wheel conspiracy.
What Act is a specialized conspiracy law frequently utilized against organized and white collar crime?
The guilty mind in conspiracy isn’t clearly defined in modern legislation, and courts have taken imprecise, widely divergent, and inconsistent approaches to the
mens rea problem.
The crime of trying to get someone else to commit a crime is known as
Which of the following is required to obtain a solicitation conviction?
the person soliciting must solicit specific individuals as opposed to a more general audience
In most jurisdictions, inchoate crimes are punished at a lower level than the object or completed crime.
Inchoate offenses require enough action to complete the crime intended.
Liability for criminal attempt offenses is based on two rationales.
The last proximate act rule is the strictest rule of attempt actus reus
All inchoate offenses have a specific intent element.
Legal impossibility is a defense to the crime of attempt.
Factual impossibility is not a valid defense to the crime of attempt.