Overview of Criminal Offenses and Defenses
Violación:
Acceso carnal con mujer privada de sentido, empleando fuerza o grave intimidación. En caso de que la mujer sea menor de edad, el delito pasa a llamarse estupro. (rape)
Privación ilegítima de la libertad:
Consiste en la sustracción, retención y ocultamiento de una persona con el fin de obligar a la víctima o a un tercero a hacer o tolerar algo en contra de su libertad. (false imprisonment).
Secuestro:
Consiste en aprehender ilícita e indebidamente a una persona para exigir dinero por su rescate o para otros fines.
Crimes against habitation:
Burglary:
(Under the common law) it is the breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another in nighttime with the intent to commit a felony. (Under MS) it is the breaking and entering any building. Not just a dwelling and not just at night, with the intent to commit a felony.
Arson:
(Under CL) it is the malicious burning of the dwelling house of another. (Under MS) it is the intentional and wrongful burning of someone else’s property (as to destroy a building) or one’s own property.
Intrusión ilegal y violenta en una propiedad con la intención de cometer un delito grave. (no está tipificado) (burglary)
Incendios y otros estragos:
Causar un incendio, explosión o inundación. En este se incluye el incendio voluntario de un bien por estafa. (Arson)
CRIME:
Act or omission (the breach of a legal duty) prohibited by law for the protection of the public, the violation of which is prosecuted by the state and punishable by fine, incarceration, or any other restriction of liberty.
Defenses (infancy (under age seven; between 7 and 14 is rebuttably presumed incapable; 14+ are treated as adults); insanity (if he is so impaired by mental illness or retardation at the time of the crime); diminished capacity (evidence of mental illness that does not establish insanity may be introduced to prove that the defendant did not have or could not have formed the requisite mens rea for the crime charged); intoxication (ingestion of liquor and other intoxicating substances like drugs and medicine); ignorance or mistake of fact (lack of mental state essential to the crime charged-mens rea requisite not constituted); ignorance or mistake of law (2 premises/scenarios/hypothesis: defendant lacked requisite mental state; where the defendant had the requisite mental state but believed his conduct was not proscribed by law); necessity or justification (where the defendant reasonably believed his actions were necessary to avoid a greater harm than would be caused by commission of the crime); duress (where the conduct of another causes the defendant to reasonably believe that unless he perpetrated the crime, he or some third person would suffer imminent death or serious bodily harm); entrapment (same as latter but by a law enforcement officer or one acting as an agent or officer); consent and related matters (consent must be legally effective and negate an element of the crime or be offered as a defense to a minor assault or battery); self-defense (a person is privileged to use such force as reasonably appears necessary to defend herself against an apparent threat of unlawful and immediate violence from another); defense of others (the latter may be used also to defend another person against unlawful harm); protection of property (the right to use force in protection of property is much more limited. Deadly force ordinarily can never be used merely to defend one’s property.); protection of dwelling (modern courts limit the right to use deadly force to situations where the defendant reasonably believed the intruder intended to commit a felony or harm someone in the dwelling); use of force to effectuate arrest; crime prevention; public authority; domestic authority)
Crimes against property:
Larceny: it is the crime against another’s possessory interest in property. It requires a trespassory taking an asportation of the personal property of another with the intent to permanently deprive the owner thereof. Only tangible personal property can be the object of a larceny.
Embezzlement: generally, it involves the fraudulent conversion of the property of another by one who is already in lawful possession.
False pretenses: it is the obtaining title to the property by means of a materially false representation with the intent to defraud the victim.
Robbery: it is larceny in which the property is taken from the victim’s person or presence by means of violence or intimidation.
Extortion: (under common law) it is the corrupt collection of an unlawful fee by a public officer under color of office. It is a misdemeanor. (under MS) it consists of receiving stolen property knowing it to be stolen with the intent to deprive the owner thereof.
Hurto: acto de apoderamiento de una cosa mueble ajena, que se sustrae de quien la tiene, sin ejercer violencia o intimidación en las personas ni fuerza en las cosas. (Larceny)
Malversación de caudales públicos: acto de tomar dinero que le ha sido depositado en confianza, pero que pertenece a otra persona. Solo es aplicable a aquellos fondos que estén relacionados con caudales públicos. (embezzlement).
Estafa: delito gráfico de defraudación que se configura por el hecho de causar a otro un perjuicio patrimonial, valiéndose de cualquier engaño, tales como el uso de nombre supuesto, de calidad simulada, falsos títulos, influencia mentida, abuso de confianza o ficción de bienes, créditos, comisión, empresa o negociación. (false pretenses)
Robo: consiste en el apoderamiento ilegítimo de una cosa mueble, total o parcialmente ajena mediante el empleo de fuerza en las cosas o de intimidación o violencia en las personas. (robbery)
Extorsión: intimidación, fuerza o coacción moral que se ejerce sobre una persona, con el fin de obtener de ella un desembolso pecuniario de su perjuicio. (extorsión)
Recepción de mercaderías robadas: no tipificado. (receiving stolen property).
Offenses against government:
Treason: it consists of levying war against the United States or under state codes, against individual states, adhering to their enemies or giving their enemies aid and comfort.
Rebellion: It is a federal offense to incite or engage in any rebellion against the U.S.
Advocating overthrow of Government: it is a federal crime knowingly or willfully to advocate the overthrow or destruction of the government of the U.S or any state.
Traición: delito contra la seguridad de la nación. Consiste en tomar las armas contra la nación o en unirse a sus enemigos prestándoles ayuda y socorro. Rebelión: es el alzamiento en armas cuya finalidad es cambiar la constitución o deponer de algunos de los poderes públicos del gobierno nacional. (treason and rebellion)
Offenses against the administration of justice:
Hindering apprehension of prosecution felony: it consists of a person who aids or warns another with the intent to hinder that person’s apprehension, conviction, or punishment. This is related to the accessory after the fact.
Misprision of felony: at common law, it is the failure to report or prosecute one known to have committed a felony. Today, federal law requires some affirmative act to conceal a felon.
Compounding a crime: a misdemeanor for a valuable consideration.
Perjury: (under CL) it is the willful giving of a false statement under oath in a judicial proceeding, (under MS) it is any proceeding in which the law authorizes the administration of an oath.
Encubrimiento: supone la existencia de un delito anterior y consiste en ocultar a quien lo cometió, en facilitarle la fuga o en hacer desaparecer los rastros o pruebas del delito. (hindering apprehension)
Encubrimiento: también se considera encubrimiento cuando una persona no comunica a la autoridad sobre la información que tuviera acerca de la comisión de un delito (misprision of a felony).
Acuerdo ilícito entre la víctima y el autor del delito para no denunciarlo a cambio de una compensación: no tipificado. (compounding a crime)
Perjurio: delito que comete quien en un juicio o ante una autoridad competente jura en falso. Este delito afecta a los testigos, peritos, intérpretes o traductores que bajo juramento o promesa afirmen una falsedad o nieguen o callen la verdad total o parcial.