Mens Rea, Actus Reus, Crime Chapter 10 Complete Test Bank

Chapter 10

Criminal Law: Mens Rea, Actus Reus, and Changing Definitions of Crime

TRUE/FALSE

1. Winston Churchill once stated that “leniency towards criminals must be the goal of all democratic nations.”

2. Steven Box, sociologist, described deviant behaviour as rule breaking.

3. Criminal law punishes acts that are threats to society and social order.

4. The actus reus is the guilty mind.

5. The first criminal code in Canada was adapted in 1892 from the British reform code.

6. Criminal law is concerned with private wrongs committed against the individual.

7. Criminal law allows the victim to be involved in the prosecution of offences so that the victim can feel avenged for the crime committed against them.

8. The basic conceptual elements of crime change with the social, political, and economic order.

9. In R. v. Cooper the Supreme Court stated that guilty mind must be concurrent with the

impugned act but not necessarily continuously.

10. Mens rea can be found by the court if the accused was only being careless when she started her course of conduct but then acquired knowledge of the nature of the act and still refused to change her course of conduct.

11. One element used to determine whether the accused possessed the requisite mens rea to be convicted of a crime looks at the question of subjective and possessive intent of the accused.

12. In certain contexts, mens rea can be founded on negligence instead of direct intent.

13 Absolute liability offences require evidence of intention.

14. Courts in some cases, may strike down absolute liability offences because they are contrary to the guaranteed presumption of innocence set out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

15. The defence of duress requires the threat to be immediate.

16. Entrapment defences need the Charter section 24 (2) to be successful.

17. Drunkenness can serve to reduce a criminal charge from manslaughter to an acquittal.

18. In Daviault v. R. the Supreme Court ruled that drunkenness akin to automatonism or insanity

would not cancel the mens rea requirement.

19. In R. v. Ewanchuk the accused was charged with sexual assault and was successful in his defence of mistake of fact.

20. In R. v. Ewanchuk, the Supreme Court determined that lack of resistance to sexual assault was implied consent.

21. In R. v. Gladue the Supreme Court of Canada held that section 718.2 (e) of the Criminal Code, which provides for different factors to be considered in the case of Aboriginal offenders, was contrary to the equality provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. What did Winston Churchill suggest as a determinant of the development of a civil society?

a. the instruments of political coercion

b. the reaction the elites to a new social order

c. the establishment of social justice

d. the treatment of crime and the criminal

2. Which statement best defines criminal law?

a. Criminal law is a form of private law.

b. Criminal law is a form of public law.

c. Criminal law is a form of common law.

d. Criminal law is a form of corporate law.

3. Which of the following best exemplifies crimes against the person?

a. insider trading, fraud, and theft

b. gambling, prostitution, and pornography

c. homicide, robbery, and sexual assault

d. driving without a licence, speeding, and failing to yield

4. Which statement best describes the response of the state to criminal conduct?

a. Penalties are created to deter deviant conduct.

b. Compensation is awarded to victims.

c. Collective responses are designed to protect the governing elite.

d. Courts are established to balance the interests of the accused and victim.

5. Courts can impose a variety of sentences against those found guilty of committing a crime. Which of the following is a criminal sentencing option?

a. general damages

b. discharges

c. interim orders

d. injunctions

6. In order for a person to have committed a crime they must have committed an actus reus. What is the best translation of actus reus?

a. a guilty mind

b. an evil act

c. a criminal act

d. an evil mind

7. In order for a person to have committed a crime they must have possessed mens rea. What is the best translation of mens rea?

a. an evil mind

b. a guilty act

c. a criminal act

d. a guilty mind

8. In R. v. Cooper, the Supreme Court’s decision raised questions. What were the Court’s questions about?

a. whether the police had behaved inappropriately

b. whether the accused committed an actus reus

c. whether the charges should be dropped

d. whether the nature of the mens rea met the requirement to substantiate a conviction

9. What is the difference between subjective and objective intent?

a. The latter is what a reasonable person would intend, and the former is what the accused actually intended.

b. The first is a common law rule and the second is established by statute.

c. The former requires the actus reus, the latter does not.

c. That the subjective test relies on a universal standard, the objective test is individually specific.

10. What does the subjective test of intent address?

a. what actually happened

b. what the accused actually did intend

c. what a reasonable person would intend

d. what the court thinks the accused intended

11. What does the objective test of intent address?

a. what actually happened

b. what the accused actually did intend

c. what a reasonable person would intend

d. what the court thinks the accused intended

12. Which statement best describes an absolute liability offence?

a. The intent of the accused is irrelevant.

b. The crown must prove only that the accused intended the harm to occur.

c. The crown must prove that the accused had the actus reus and mens rea to commit the crime.

d. Both the actus reus and mens rea were present in the mind of the accused, but they did not occur simultaneously.

13. Everyone is a party to an offence if which of the following apply?

a. They actually commit it.

b. They do anything for the purpose of aiding any person committing it.

c. They abet any person committing it

d. all of the above

14. Which of the following is a defence to otherwise criminal behaviour?

a. self-defence

b. duress

c. entrapment

d. all of the above

15. Under which of the following circumstances could an accused person be acquitted of some crimes?

a. He didn’t know that his conduct was considered criminal.

b. He is too intoxicated to remember what happened.

c. He is too intoxicated to understand the nature of the alleged offence.

d. He thought that he had to in order to feed his family.

16. Which circumstance must occur in order for an accused to claim duress as a defence to a criminal charge?

a. A violent act must have occurred.

b. It must be established that there was no mens rea.

c. The threat to the accused must have been immediate.

d. It must be proven that the act was not necessary.

17. Which of the following situations best explains when the defence of mistake of fact can be used?

a. The accused did not understand that her conduct was criminal.

b. The accused thought that her child was in danger of being killed.

c. The accused was incapable of forming the intent to commit a crime.

d. The accused thought that the victim was consenting to the crime.

18. Which statement best describes the outcome of R. v. Pappajohn and R. v. Sansreget?

a. The Supreme Court of Canada found that honestly held but mistaken beliefs that are nonetheless unreasonable will not sustain the presence of consent where there is in fact none.

b. The Supreme Court of Canada acquitted the accused of sexual assault because it found that the subjective test of what both accused believed was supported by the presumption of innocence.

c. The Supreme Court of Canada found that the fact that the victim in both cases had no cuts, scrapes, or bruises proved they had consented to sexual relations with the accused.

d. The Supreme Court of Canada found that a former partner who breaks into his ex-girlfriend’s house and threatens her with a file can reasonably conclude that sexual relations with her are consensual.

19. Which statement best describes the end result of the Supreme Court’s decision in R. v. Lavallee?

a. The decision was seen as a legal setback by women’s groups.

b. The decision found the accused guilty of manslaughter.

c. The decision dismissed the accused’s claim of self-defence.

d. The decision challenged the interpretation of self-defence law.

ESSAY

1. In R. v. Cooper the Supreme Court of Canada was asked to decide what degree of concurrency was required for an accused to be convicted of murder. There was no dispute that the accused committed the act of holding someone by the neck and shaking the victim. There was, however, an issue as to whether the accused could form the intent to cause the victim’s death because he was too drunk to know what he was doing. What was the majority decision for the court and what were the reasons for the majority deciding as it did? There was also a dissent in this case. Why?

2. Following the Daviault decision, Parliament enacted an amendment to section 33 of the Criminal Code which states that self-intoxication is no longer a defence to certain offences. Is this a reasonable provision? Is section 33.1 contrary to section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees everyone to the right to life, liberty, and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice?

3. Section 718 of the Criminal Code and section 718.2 affect judicial discretion in applying sentencing principles in specific cases. Give examples and speculate as to how this guideline is likely to affect this legal process.

4. Define the defence of duress. Discuss its limitations and contrast it with the legal definition of provocation, giving case law examples.

5. The defence of honest mistake of fact has been codified and restricted as a defence in cases of sexual assault. How did the case law leading up to the amendments set out in section 273.1 of the Criminal Code lead to the enactment of this amendment to the Code? How might the defence of honest mistake of fact still be used for other crimes to gain the accused an acquittal?

6. What is the social and legal significance of the Supreme Court’s decision in R. v. Lavallee? Please discuss the impact of the case in subsequent decisions.

7. What are the goals of sentencing as set out in the Criminal Code of Canada? Analyze how these goals have been interpreted and applied in the cases of R. v. Horon and R. v. Gladue.