Inchoate Offenses, Essay Example

Laws are instituted to maintain order.  When those laws are broken, the methods by which we punish the criminal are far-reaching and often debatable.  One of those areas of question comes in the punishment of inchoate offenses. Inchoate offenses are the elements of a criminal act that facilitate its execution, like conspiracy, solicitation and facilitation.  Throughout civilization, lawmakers have decided that inchoate acts are subject to punishment, because in many instances the crime may not have taken place without them. There is precedence for the success of inchoate crime prosecution:  for example, the numerous records of citations for forming conspiracies or inciting the population could have been the reason for the lack of Roman criminal law. (Stenson, p. 5)  Many European countries today see many other elements of a criminal enterprise as equally punishable, as in Germany, where knowledge of a criminal act, or praising and rewarding its success after the fact is in violation of that country’s Penal Code. (Stenson, p. 9) With the enactment of the RICO statute, America has begun to adopt these ideas into an effective method of fighting organized crime (Stenson, p. 8). When determining whether inchoate acts fall under actus reus or mens rea, their intent to further or validate the crime put them in the mens rea category; these are actions that considered and executed in order to do something illegal.  Stopping inchoate acts is one of the most effective means of crime prevention.  Cutting off crime at the head means that less people will be affected, and the disease of social disorder is stopped from spreading.

References

Stenson, T. Inchoate Crimes and Criminal Responsibility under International Law. Retrieved from http://www.law.upenn.edu/journals/jil/jilp/articles/1-1_Stenson_Thomas.pdf