Exploring the Balance in Criminal Law: Actus Reus and Culpability

This essay delves into the intricate balance within criminal law concerning actus reus (the guilty act) and the culpability of defendants, particularly when factors like automatism, insanity, or diminished responsibility come into play. It examines how these conditions can mitigate or negate criminal liability, exploring the legal definitions and implications of each defense. The analysis includes discussions on the M'Naghten Rules for insanity, the differences between insane and non-insane automatism, and the concept of diminished responsibility as it relates to charges like manslaughter. The essay further elucidates the role of mens rea (guilty mind), intention, and recklessness in determining criminal culpability, providing a comprehensive overview of how the legal system navigates cases where the physical act of a crime is committed but the defendant's mental state is compromised. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Criminal Law

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
“Consider whether the criminal law now has the right balance when dealing with defendants who
have committed the actus reus of an offence but may have reduced or no culpability for the
actions”............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Generally, the commitment of the crime leads to the criminal offences by the person and the
court will impose the penalty or the prosecution on the person for such action. However there is a
chance, that the offender can mitigate the criminal liability, with this regards the automatism,
insanity and the diminished responsibility plays a significant role. The present study is based on
criminal activity associated with actusrea and the relationship of the same with the automatism,
insanity and the diminished responsibility. Further, in this study, it is also evaluated in what
circumstances the criminal liability on the person cannot be imposed by the court.
“CONSIDER WHETHER THE CRIMINAL LAW NOW HAS THE RIGHT
BALANCE WHEN DEALING WITH DEFENDANTS WHO HAVE
COMMITTED THE ACTUS REUS OF AN OFFENCE BUT MAY HAVE
REDUCED OR NO CULPABILITY FOR THE ACTIONS”
Actusreus is described as the external element or the objective element of a crime, which is the
Latin word for the "guilty act" which demonstrate a sensible doubt in mixture with the men'srea,
"guilty mind". It creates criminal liability in the common law-based criminal rule in accordance
with the law of England and Wales. In this approach, the conduct or behaviour can by
themselves be a criminal (Robinson, 2017). For instance, the behaviour of lying beneath promise
signifies the actusreus of lying under oath. In this, it is not important that whether the lie is
supposed or in condition had some consequence on the outcome of the situation, the actus Reus
of the offencecompletely dependupon the behaviour. The actusreus might relate to the
consequence of the proceedings or oversight of the defendant. The behaviour itself might not be

illegal, but the consequence of the demeanour possibly be a criminaloffence and same has been
cited in the case of (R v Larsonneur (1933) 24 Cr App R 74. Example throwing a stone is not a
crimehowever in case it strikes a person or broke a window it might sum to an
offence. Causation should be recognized in all such crimes (González-Tapia and Obsuth,
2015).
Infrequently an oversight can sum to the actusreus of a crime (Mitchell, 2017). Oversight or
failure to act usually carries no liabilities. The same implies that an individual will be considered
as criminal only when they have exercised an optimistic act. Further, to explain this example is
illustrated, individual A walking past a person B who was going on drown. Individual B could be
saved if individual A holds their hand. Moreover, individual in case A does not hold their hand
and person B drowns. In such a case individual A will not be liable legally.
However the universal rule concerning omissions is that there is no legal responsibility for a
stoppage to act. For example, in case an individual see a child jumping from the wall and still not
taking any action to save that child, in such case individual will not be liable for their inaction
despite how simple it might have been for them to secure the life of the child. The actusreus of a
crime can be grouped within one or several of three categories that are following:
 Conduct - The actusreus needs a convinced conduct
 Circumstantial - in which the actions are not criminal, but the situations are.
 Result - The actusreus necessitate a consequence.
A person can be protected from the crime if the conditions on the basis of which crime occurred
contradict the essential requirement of the crime. Here, Actusrea means the activities are
automatic, and the offender is not aware of the activities or behaviour which had led them

towards crime.The wrong thinking does not seek to chastise populace for their wickedness
opinion (Duck v Peacock [1949]). Therefore, blame might be showed to be accountable for
conduct or the continuation of the state of affairs forbidden by the criminal commandment earlier
than legal responsibility might occur. Therefore legal responsibility will depend additionally on
the accused state of mind at the point in time, more often than not intension or irresponsibility is
necessary (Rumbold, 2018).
These barricades will assist in negate or eliminate the liability from the criminal offence.
Automatism, insanity, and diminished responsibility are some example of the barricades.
Further, the features of the automatism, insanity and the diminished responsibility have the same
features but their implementation and the range is different (Yannoulidis, S., 2016). Where the
state of mind of the offender at the time of committing the crime was abnormal, then the
automatism, insanity and diminished responsibility play a significant role (Jiao, at, el 2016). The
reason behind same is it is proven that the person while committing the offence was mentally
unwell thus can’t be punished for same.
Automatism refers as a state of the unconscious behaviour of the person, in which the working or
the activities of the mind generate automatically, which does not consist of the mental and the
emotional process (Shaw, 2015). In the term, unconscious includes automatic reaction, habits,
feelings and so on. Automatism may be due to the certain medication, condition of the nervous
system (Shiffrin, and Schneider, 2016). Generally, the automatism is not regarded as a criminal
offence, due to the unconscious state of the person, the activity of the person leads to the
unlawful activity (Chapman, and MacLean, 2015). According to the law, normally voluntary act
or the responsible behaviour is required to prove the actusreus in crime. Since the actusreus in
criminal law includes all the essential elements of how the crime, however, it excludes the state

of mind of the offender.Moreover, intoxication is not included in the automation even if it is
involuntary. Automatism is generally based on the insane automatism (Chapman, 2015).
Causation simply relates conduct to an outcome. Factual causation is recognized by exercising
the But-for test. However, Legal causation is a bit critical. The proximate basis law could be
implemented. For instance, an individual could quarrel that if a mechanic did not manufacture a
car, manslaughter would not have occurred. Prevailing effects could also eliminate liability.
Further, if someone is hurt by a gunshot and then they are hit by lightning in an ambulance,
individual can quarrel the shooter is responsible utilising the but-for test. Though, lawfully the
shooter will not be liable for harm sustained by lightning clout.
There is a difference between the insane automatism and the non-insane automatism. Although
the insane automatism and the non-insane automatism is based on the involuntary activities of
the person, the non-insane automatism is impacted by the external factors,and the insane
automatism is impacted by the internal factors (Rumbold, and Wasik, 2015). If the offender
proves that crimes have been occurred due to the non-insane automatism, then all the criminal
liability imposed on him will be discharged. Further for proving the non-insane automatism three
elements must exist which are activities of the person occurred unintentionally from the external
sources, the activity not self-prompted and the actions are fully involuntary (Brown, 2018).
Intention of the crime is significant variant since it is the mens rea requisite for serious crimes,
comprising murder. Further, the same is bifurcated in two types, direct intent and oblique intent.
Further, direct intent is comparatively straightforward and is linked to the defendant’s endeavour.
On the other hand oblique intent is where defendant did not wants the effects, but they knew they
were definite to take place.

On the other hand, insanity is applied in the aspect of the legal term and not the medical term. A
person can be protected by insanity in a special judgement of ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’.
The M’Naghten Rules (1843) defines the defence of insanity, which was built by the houses of
the lord. These rules stated the four essential elements which are as follows-
 Every person is considered as a sane unless any contradiction is ascertained. In other
words, it can be said that it has to prove by the defence that the offender was insane.
 There must be the existence a defect of reason which leads to the influence the
offender,and for this reason, offender totally deprived for a reason.
 The reason for the defect must be generated from the disease of the mind, which
diminished the mental function of the offender. Here the term disease of the mind is not
the medical term; it is the legal term which is based on the question of law (Koskela,
Pettitt and Drennan, 2015).
 The last element of the insanity is the offender does not have any knowledge about the
activities what he was undertaking and even if he knows about the activity which was
undertaken by him, but he was not aware with why it was wrong.
In this, the offender takes the burden to prove the chances that he/she insane at the time
of commitment of the crime according to the above-described test. If the crime was as per
the test, then the offender is found as not guilty by reason of insanity, which is also
known as the special verdict. The court may follow the various methods to deal with the
special verdict if the person is found not guilty by reason of insanity (Slobogin, 2016).
Further, under the criminal law, the judge can make the number of order as per their wish
in respect of the person who positively pleads insanity. The orders are described below-
 The judge can make the order for the entire discharge of the person.

 The judge can make the order to person for the treatment,and the built the control over
him.
 The judge can make the order to make a custody
 If the person committed the crime related to the murder, then the judge can make the
order to the offender to confess in a secure hospital (Slobogin, 2018).
Diminished responsibility refers as a probable defence by the excuse in which offender contented
that if they ruined the law, but also they should not be considered as a criminally liable because
at the time of the activity their mental function is not properly working or the mental function
was reduced (Manninen, 2018). The doctrine of diminished responsibility offers an alleviating
defence in the cases where the extent of the mental function or the mental defect is not as to
eliminate the criminal liability totally. This is mostly related tothe emphasis on the murder case,
which needs the evidence of the mental state of the respondent. In the situation where the court
determines that the offender is not capable of contemplation, however, due to the capacity of the
offender from his activity the wrongfulness emerged then the court may levy the less severe
penalty on the person (Reed, 2016).
Further, recklessness is specified as forecasting that a specific type of impairment might be done,
but going on to do it anyhow. In addition there is also another way of identifying recklessness,
defined in R v Cunningham. This time reckless is related to an act which generates apparent risk
or harm along with giving no idea of their probably being a risk, in identifying risk, they
continue to do it anyhow.
On the other hand, if the offender can successfully prove that due to the mental condition, the
activity leads to the criminal offence by him then the person will be found guilty of the

Manslaughter is spite of murder (Dinstein, 2017). Manslaughter is the criteria in the criminal
law, in which the lesser penalty is imposed on the person as compared with the penalty which is
charged in case of the murder. For instance, if the lawyer of the person proved that person was
suffering from Asperger Syndrome, which can provide a diminished responsibility defence
(Maloff, 2018).
On the basis of the above analysis, it has been seen that all the three such as automatism, insanity
and the diminished responsibility plays a significant role at the time of the commission of a
crimeby the person and the person was suffering from any kind of abnormality. Moreover,
automatism, insanity and the diminished responsibility all the three factors are decided on the
basis of abnormality, but the definition of the abnormality in all three elements is different. Since
in the automatism, the person did not have any control over the body at the time of the crime
happen and it was not due to the fault by the person but due to the lack of control over the body,
thus the person may ask for not guilty (Dobrucká, 2018). Further, in the automatism, there is no
special verdict by the court.The defence of automatism is very closely connected with the
insanity. Lack of control over the body may be due to the internal factor such as the body of the
person is not properly working or may be due to the external factor such as depression in mind.
If the person did not exercise proper control over the body due to the internal factors, then this
leads to the insanity,and the special verdict will be applied. Moreover lack of control due to the
external factor classified as sanity, which leads to the simple acquittal.Further, the diminished
responsibility is generally applicable in case of the murder. Diminished responsibility is based on
the recognized medical condition of the person. Further, the diminished responsibility is accepted
only on the basis of the clear evidence of the mental disorder (Griffith, 2015).

CONCLUSION
On the basis of the above analysis, it can be concluded that abnormality of the mind assists in the
mitigation of the criminal liability of the person. Defence arises when all the conditions of
committing a crime are not present. In this aspect, the automatism, insanity and diminished
responsibility play a great role in concluding the decision relating to an offence. All the three
terms are interconnected with each other since they all depend on the abnormality of mind
however there scope and application are different to some aspect.

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