Criminal Justice > QUESTIONS & ANSWERS > CRW2601 - 9. Culpability (All)

CRW2601 - 9. Culpability

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CRW2601 - 9. Culpability What is Culpability? - CORRECT ANSWER-Mens rea = fault. The mere fact that a person has committed an unlawful act which complies with the definitional elements and which is ... unlawful is not yet sufficient to render him criminally liable: X's conduct must be accompanied by culpability. Will be the case if he has committed the unlawful act in a blameworthy state of mind. Unlawfulness v Culpability: Unlawfulness: Agnostic to personal characteristics of perpetrator. Culpability: Personal characteristics of perpetrator taken into consideration. Person must be endowed with criminal capacity before person has acted culpably. X must have acted either intentionally or negligently. Thus: culpability = criminal capacity + (intention or negligence) The culpability and the unlawful act must be contemporaneous. No crime is committed if culpability only existed prior to the commission of the unlawful act, but not at the moment the act was committed, or if it came into being only after the commission of the unlawful act. (Case: Masilela 1968) What is Criminal Capacity? - CORRECT ANSWER-A person is endowed with criminal capacity if he has the mental ability to 1. appreciate the wrongfulness of his act or omission, and 2. act in accordance with such an appreciation of the wrongfulness of his act or omission. Discuss Criminal Capacity vs Intention. - CORRECT ANSWER-The question whether X acted intentionally or negligently arises only once it is established that he had criminal capacity. Criminal Capacity: Connected with mental abilities Intention: Presence or absence of a certain attitude or state of mind Not knowing something is unlawful means that X acted without intention, not that he is without criminal capacity. Discuss Two psychological legs of test. - CORRECT ANSWER-1. Ability to appreciate wrongfulness (cognitive) 2. Ability to ac [Show More]

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