CRIMINOLOGY

Criminology

In what circumstances may an act be performed by an omission?

Can a Failure to Act make an Individual Guilty in the eyes of the Law?

Distinction between Acts and Omissions

An action is the physical participation in any given situation. It is obvious to most people that if they perform an illegal action they will be punished. An illegal action would include physical violence, theft, robbery, rape, murder or manslaughter. These are the types of offences that would be automatically punishable under the law (Turk, 2006, 67).

The confusion arises where someone fails to act in a particular situation. These failures to act are called omissions.

An example to draw the distinction is as follows:

If a person in hospital is being kept alive by a drip feed, the physical withdrawal of this feed would amount to an illegal action, the failure to replace an empty drip feed would therefore amount to a failure to act, an omission.

The General Rule: No criminal liability for failing to act

Generally there is no criminal liability for failing to act in a certain situation. If there was to be wholesale liability for omission we would be forced to alter our actions and plans in order to prevent outcomes that occur as a result of someone else behaviour.

Offense behaviour is strictly prohibited by law and punishable by criminal penalties under it. The Italian criminal law defines the offense as a violation of state law, resulting from an external act of man, positive or negative, socially accountable, does not justify the doing of a duty or exercising a right, which is punishable by law (Taylor, 2008, 123). It summarizes the following rules:

Violation of state law: the offense must be provided by any law. (See legal element)

External act of man: The mere thought is not wrong, even a thought of murder. The act must be external to man (see material element)

Positive or negative:

A positive act is an action that is prohibited by law as an assault

A negative action is the failure to perform an action that the law commands, such as failure to assist persons in danger. The law orders that to help a person does not warrant the performance of a duty or exercise of a right. The defence of an offense as breaking a window to save a child forgotten in a hot car. There if no blame on the breakage of the glass, because you have given assistance to a person in danger. No punishment can be given without the consent of law. No penalty can be enforced if it was not provided by any law (Sellin, 1998, 45).

For this offense requires the combination of three elements:

a legal element

a material element,

a mental element.

Criminal offenses are classified into three categories: violations, misdemeanours and crimes from the Imperial Penal Code of 1810 Article 1 of which said:

"The offense that the law punishes police is a violation, the offense that the law punishes by correctional penalties is a misdemeanour, the offense that the law punishes afflictive and infamous is a crime ...