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Posts tagged criminal liability
RECKLESSNESS AND RAPE

By R.A.Duff*

Both the trial judge and the Court of Appeal seemed to base their view that a mistaken belief in consent must be reasonable if it is to secure an acquittal on evidential principles, not on the substantive principle that one who acts on an unreasonable belief really has the mens rea of rape. That mens rea consists, they agreed, in "the intention to do the prohibited act":" it involves an awareness of the woman's lack of consent, and is in principle negatived by any honest belief in consent. But proof of the fact of non-consensual intercourse creates a presumption that the defendant knew she did not consent, and casts on him the evidential burden of adducing evidence to rebut that presumption. "before any issue as to his state of mind can arise for the jury's consideration".' This burden is not discharged by "a bald assertion of belief for which the accused can indicate no reasonable ground"," but only by evidence of a reasonable belief: if such evidence is adduced, the prosecution must prove either that that belief was not honestly held or that it was not reasonable.

The Liverpool Law Review VoJ. III (2) 119811, 16p.

Corporate Criminal Liability: Lessons from the Introduction of Failure to Prevent Offences

By Kathryn Westmore

It has long been difficult for prosecutors in the UK to hold corporates to account for criminal behaviour and, in particular, for economic crime-related misconduct. The ‘identification doctrine’ requires that only the acts of the person who represents the company’s ‘directing mind and will’ can be attributed to a company. At the same time, it is recognised that there are certain types of criminal behaviour that can only be carried out within a corporate structure, and which are carried out for the benefit of that corporate entity. Therefore, it is inherently problematic that it is difficult to bring corporate criminal prosecutions. The introduction of ‘failure to prevent’ offences are an attempt to overcome these difficulties. The basis of a failure to prevent offence is simple – to have any defence, an organisation needs to prove that it had ‘reasonable’ or ‘adequate’ procedures in place to prevent an individual associated with it from carrying out a criminal activity. The first failure to prevent offence was introduced in relation to bribery in 2010; two further failure to prevent offences followed in the Criminal Finances Act 2017 related to the facilitation of tax evasion....  

London:  Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), 2022. 19P.