Discuss legal and factual impossibility regarding liability. Explain why one is a defense to attempt liability and one is not. Provide examples

What will be an ideal response?


A legal impossibility occurs when actors intend to commit crimes, and do everything they can to carry out their criminal intent, but the criminal law doesn't ban what they did. A factual impossibility occurs when actors intend to commit a crime and try to but some fact or circumstance—an extraneous factor—interrupts them to prevent the completion of the crime.

Criminal Justice

You might also like to view...

Indeterminate sentences allow for the parole board to ultimately control the length of a sentence

Indicate whether the statement is true or false

Criminal Justice

Prior to testimony, it is important that the officer speak with whom?

a. The supervisor b. The defendant c. The judge d. The prosecutor

Criminal Justice

Which of the following does NOT characterize the reality of Euro-American and Indian relations?

a. harmony b. hostility c. contempt d. brutality

Criminal Justice

The primary difference between the consensus and conflict theorists with respect to their view of government vis-à-vis the governed is

a. the loss of freedom and the creation of conflict in modern societies. b. the development of private property and the unequal distribution of resources. c. their evaluation of the legitimacy of the actions of ruling groups in contemporary societies. d. All the above

Criminal Justice