Law for Student Police Officers

Jonathan Merritt

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781844455638
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Criminal Law
• Index: Law

This book provides a comprehensive examination of all the required areas of criminal and policing law, with explicit links to the National Occupational Standards. Chapters open with clear objectives and include regular revision notes, knowledge check questions and answers and practical activities.

This second edition has been fully revised to expand the content, take account of recent changes and reflect the latest legislation. In particular there is a new chapter on PCSOs, the sections on police powers, roads policing, animals and evidence have been updated and the issue of diversity has been woven into an increased number of scenarios.

1 Basic legal concepts

Remember this symbol indicates that the material might be useful for your Student Officer Learning and Assessment Programme (SOLAP) portfolio or any attached reflective practice record you are required to make.

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Underpinning knowledge towards Patrol Officer NOS:

1A1, 2C1, 2C3, 2C4, 2G2, 2G4, 2H1, 2H2, 2J1, 2J2, 2K2, 4C1

and PCSO NOS:

1A1, 2C1, 2C3, 2C4, 2C5, 2J1, 2J2, 4C1

For further information on these NOS, which are also Policing Level 3 and 4 NVQ unit titles, refer to Appendix 1 to this volume.

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Actus reus and mens rea

The ‘guilty act’

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By the end of this section you will be able to:

• use the term actus reus to describe the relevant part of a crime;
• describe the different ways an actus reus can occur;
• analyse problem actus reus issues in criminal law scenarios.

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The goal is to study individual offences and apply that knowledge to scenarios to determine what crimes might have been committed. Before we can do that we have to understand what component parts crimes have and what relationship each part has to each other. This is rather like the fact that you would need to know the purpose and description of woodwork tools before you could attempt to make a chair. Similarly it would be necessary to understand how a piece of gym equipment functions before using it to work out.

Criminal offences potentially have both a physical element and a mental element. All have the physical part, that is: hitting, killing, stabbing, taking, destroying, driving and so on. Most also have an accompanying mental state; for example, intention, recklessness, carelessness, negligence, even ‘wilful blindness’.

A conviction for some criminal offences can be obtained just for doing the physical element, although these are the minority. Driving too fast on a road is an example of this; we call this speeding and the criminal law is not interested in whether this was intentional or resulted from a lapse of concentration. We will consider this further in the ‘Strict liability’ section.

The physical element is called the actus reus (guilty act) and the mental element is called the mens rea (guilty mind). Be careful about the use of the word ‘act’, however; some types of actus reus do not involve acts at all but rather failing to act, as we shall see in the next section.

Connecting the actus reus to a mens rea can be a very important issue as well. For example, if a man walks towards a woman and head-butts her, this could be one of two things:

(a) he has intentionally committed a serious assault on her;

(b) he tripped and as he fell his head came into contact with hers.

Both examples contain the same act which could be an actus reus, a blow to the head of the victim. But only a) describes an accompanying mens rea which could result in a conviction for assault; b) could simply be an accident.

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REVISION

Actus reus means ‘Guilty act’

Mens rea means ‘Guilty mind’

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Actus reus – some more complex issues

Students should try not to be put off by the use of Latin terms; they are declining dramatically in number in law generally and the remainder actually do help as a label as we will discover.

An actus reus can be one of three things.

• A positive act, i.e. ‘doing’ something. Examples include strangling someone, kissing someone you should not (yes – believe it or not in certain circumstances!), setting fire, or growing something you should not (e.g. a cannabis plant).
• An omission, perhaps better understood as failing to do something. This could be failing to feed a child, checking the health of a seriously ill patient in your care or closeing a watertight external door on a ship.
• A state of affairs. This would not require the accused to have done anything or omitted to do anything; he or she simply is found to be in a certain set of circumstances. This might include being an illegal immigrant or being drunk and in charge of a bicycle in the street.

Positive acts are relatively straightforward both in terms of recognising them in ordinary police work and in terms of answering exam and assignment questions. The more difficult areas are the omissions and states of affairs.

When you are filling out your SOLAP or any associated reflective diary remember to make links with the criminal law study you have done.

Omissions

Generally English law does not require people to act to help others, whatever the moral position might be. Otherwise consider what would happen if, as a civilian, you passed a burning house in the street. You know the fire brigade will not get there in time to save the occupants. If the law required you to act you would have to run into the house and try and save the victims for you to avoid prosecution. Some jurisdictions, such as France, do place these duties on ordinary people in certain circumstances. Some of the photographers first on the scene at Princess Diana’s crash in the underpass in Paris were investigated for the offence of failing to summon assistance.

Under English law however, there are only four situations when people are required to act and will be guilty of an omission if they do not.

• When the victim is a dependant or in another ‘special relationship’ with the accused. This could be an adult relative with severe learning difficulties in the care of the accused for example.

A leading case in this area is R v Gibbins v Proctor (1918). A couple intentionally withheld food from a child with the result that the child died. They were guilty of murder.

• When the accused has created a dangerous circumstance and failed to rectify it. This might be when a couple go to a hay barn for illicit sex and the man knocks over a gas camping light, setting fire to the hay. He runs from the scene leaving the woman to be trapped and killed by the fire without summoning assistance.

An example in case law would be R v Miller (1982). Miller was a squatter who fell asleep on a mattress in the squat. By definition the property did not belong to him. Miller’s cigarette set fire to the mattress but he awoke and discovered the fire. Mysteriously however, he simply went to another room where he found a mattress which was not on fire and fell asleep on that. Miller was found guilty of reckless criminal damage by omission.

• When there is a contractual or other duty to act and the accused did not do something he or she should have done. This might be an employment contract, for example a teacher’s, which would include the requirement to act to keep pupils safe while in the teacher’s charge. This contractual duty was the central issue in R v Pittwood (1902). Pittwood was employed to raise and lower a railway crossing barrier; he went to lunch leaving it up. As a result a man driving a horse and cart across the railway crossing was killed. Pittwood was convicted of manslaughter. Doctors and police officers may not have a contractual duty as such. Police officers, for example, are office holders, not employees, but failure to act may for them create liability. This is because they are required to act in certain circumstances as seen in R v Dytham (1979) where a police officer failed to intervene at an incident.
• When the accused voluntarily assumes responsibility for the victim but fails to carry through the obligation. For example in R v Instan (1893) a niece agreed to care for her aunt but then failed to feed her properly.

Perhaps the most harrowing example of this though is R v Stone and Dobinson (1977). Stone and Dobinson were a cohabiting couple. The sister of one of them, Stone, came to live with them. Between them, Stone and Dobinson had learning difficulties, sight and hearing problems and the need for a social worker to visit their son to contend with. The sister, Fanny, was anorexic, became ill and died from malnutrition and infected bedsores. This was unsurprising as she had lain in her own faeces and urine for some time in a bed in her part of the house.

Fanny was an adult but both accused had assumed a voluntary duty to her. They had done this by putting food out for her and making feeble attempts to summon medical assistance. They had failed to notify the social worker of Fanny’s plight. Both accused were convicted of what was then known as reckless manslaughter.

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REVISION

An actus reus can occur through:

– an act;

– an omission;

– surrounding circumstances.

An actus reus by omission occurs only when there is a duty to act:

– when the victim is a dependant;

– when the accused creates the danger;

– when there is a contract;

– when responsibility is voluntarily assumed.

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Work through the following examples before continuing with your reading to consolidate your learning.

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Knowledge Check 1

This is a fairly academic exercise which might be used to train lawyers. Nevertheless similar skills are becoming increasingly necessary for police officers. See if you can determine the answers using the previous notes. Consider whether a homicide has potentially taken place by omission. Ignore for the moment any issue of mens rea.

1. Kat is a nurse and is walking down the road after work. She sees a drunk obviously fighting for breath and clutching his chest by the roadside. She does nothin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• About the author
• Table of statutes
• Table of cases
• Foreword
• Introduction – How to use this book
• 1 Basic legal concepts
• 2 Human rights
• 3 Police powers under PACE 1984 and SOCPA 2005
• 4 Other police powers
• 5 Police organisation
• 6 Police community support officers and the ‘wider police family’
• 7 Violence and intimidation
• 8 Sexual offences
• 9 Drugs and solvents
• 10 Property offences
• 11 Public order
• 12 Crime prevention
• 13 Animals
• 14 Sentencing issues
• 15 Introduction to evidence
• 16 Children, young persons and the mentally ill
• 17 Conspiring, aiding, abetting and attempting to commit crime
• 18 Weapons
• 19 Alcohol, drunkenness and licensing
• 20 Roads policing
• 21 An understanding of civil law
• Appendix 1
• Index