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Close To An Offence Essay

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Attempt is a form of an inchoate offence, in that, although the accused has the necessary mens rea for the offence, his or her actions are not sufficient enough to constitute the actus reus for the complete offence. Attempt is a requisite addition to the criminal law for both practical and moral reasons. Firstly, a person who intends to commit an offence is no less morally liable than an individual who does, simply because his actions did not materialise the offence wholly. Secondly, it is in societies best interests to ‘strike out pre-emptively against criminal behaviour rather than stand idly by and wait for its pernicious consequences to reach fruition before acting’. The law of attempt has been plagued with contentious issues throughout …show more content…
The common law has attempted to answer the question of how close to an offence an accused must be for it to be considered an attempt with several tests. The most pertinent of which were the ‘last act’ test that was established in R v Eagleton in which Parke B determined that ‘acts remotely leading towards the commission of the offence are not to be considered as attempts to commit it, but acts immediately connected with it are’. There is the potential that this test would absolve individuals of liability in the event that an individual fails, for any reason, to commit the ‘last act’ because under this test his actions were not proximate enough to the crime. It is also very likely that the ‘last act’ would be an action that results in the complete offence, as there are very few offences in which there is an action remaining to be done after the ‘last act’, and thus the accused would not be liable to an attempt of that offence. In Stonehouse , the ‘last test’ was acknowledged in that the accused had done the ‘last act’ in the offence that he could, however, the case was not determined on this test alone. It was more that this ‘last act’ was sufficiently proximate to constitute an

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