Preparation vs. attempt
Although every crime ever attempted obviously had a preparation phase at some point, the concept of preparation is viewed in legally distinct terms vs. The actual attempt to commit the crime. In other words, a criminal can prepare to commit a crime but not actually attempt to commit the crime. Attempts are in many instances criminalized: for example, someone who attempts but fails to successfully to complete the crime as in a case of attempted murder. Preparing to commit the crime by simply contemplating the act, however, is not necessarily a crime. Furthermore, there are additional legal distinctions drawn between an attempted vs. A successful crime. Of course, “a successful attempt to commit a crime will not support two convictions and penalties, one for the attempt and the other for the completed offense. This is for the obvious reason that whatever is deemed the appropriate penalty for the total misconduct can be imposed upon conviction of the offense itself” (Perkins 1954: 320). In other words, someone who attempts to commit a burglary will not be convicted both of attempted burglary and actual burglary. But attempted burglary is a crime even while merely contemplating a burglary in preparation to attempt the crime is not.
The fact that the concepts of preparation and attempt are not synonymous can be confusing given the extent to which this requires a determination of the individual perpetrator’s state of mind. “As one court explained the use of ‘attempt’ in the assault cases: ‘if one in anger draw back his fist to strike, being within striking distance, it is an offer; but if he draw back and make a lick and miss, it is an attempt'” (Perkins 1954: 339). The individual might be potentially charged with another crime, such as harassment because of the threat but the waved fist would not necessarily be interpreted as an attempt. In general, three components of the problem of criminal attempt have defined the issue in legal history: “(1) Should impossibility be deemed to exclude attempt and, if so, what should be considered impossibility? (2) How should the line of demarcation between attempt and preparation be drawn? (3) What significance should be attributed to withdrawal from attempt?” (Kichyun 1957: 1174).
The notion of impossibility refers to the fact that a crime must be possible for it to be attempted. The crime must be possible in the legal sense if not the actual sense (someone who shoots a gun he believes erroneously to be loaded can still be convicted of the crime of attempted murder) (Perkins 1954:333). To determine whether the defendant viewed the crime as possible, verbal indicators can be taken into consideration but these must be reasonable relative to the gesture. Proximity may be used to determine intent as well as the quality of speech. Thus “no assault was committed by the one who raised his whip within striking distance and said: ‘Were you not an old man, I would knock you down.’ He was neither attempting to commit a battery nor placing the other in apprehension of receiving a battery” (Perkins 1954: 346). If someone was far away and shouted at someone ‘I am going to get you,’ while waving his fist, the lack of proximity would mean a conviction for attempted assault would be challenging to obtain. “[But] in the case of a conditional threat…If one within striking distance threatens to strike unless something is done or omitted, and the other does as commanded in order to avoid being struck, there has been apprehension. It was the apprehension of being struck that induced compliance” (Perkins 1954: 346).
As well as a feasible threat, to prove there was an attempt to commit a crime requires defining the attempt as distinct from mere preparation. It is also noteworthy that “a distinction is made between measures taken by way of preparation for the commission of a crime and steps taken in the direction of its actual perpetration” (Perkins 1954: 325). But the actual preparation for the crime is not synonymous with the attempt. “So far as the common law is concerned there is no criminal attempt unless what was done went beyond the stage of preparation” and the “act must reach far enough toward the accomplishment of the desired result to amount to the commencement of the consummation” (Perkins 1954: 325). Of course, this can be difficult to define: for example, in the case of an attempted murder, making inquiries about the whereabouts of the intended victim might merely be classified as preparation while actually drawing the gun would be classified as an attempt. “The problem is to determine at what point his acts went beyond preparation and were in the nature of perpetration. The actual firing of the shot was not essential to the attempt” (Perkins 1954: 326).
The concept of attempt as distinct from preparation is designed to address the need to punish a meaningful attempt at a crime while not punishing mere fantasizing about the crime. However, the argument remains that drawing such a fine line between these two is reliant upon a determination of a state of mind to such of degree that the line drawn is meaningless. But it should be noted that the notion of the distinction between attempt and preparation does not mean that someone who merely prepares for the crime but does not take a single step to act to commit the crime cannot be convicted. For example, the crime of stockpiling weapons may be penalized as a separate crime even though it is sometimes a component of preparing to commit the attempted crime of murder. Admittedly, this is penalizing the defendant for a different, actual crime vs. The one he decided to commit but this is one possible solution to the problem of determining the mental state of the defendant — to focus on actions rather than upon intentions. Finally, there is the question of withdrawal: when the preparation is aborted, where to draw the line between an aborted preparation and a legally culpable attempt? “A voluntary withdrawal may be regarded as a ground for according immunity to the actor or as a ground for reducing his punishment or as not affecting his responsibility in any way” (Kichyun 1957: 1197).
Solutions to the problem of distinguishing between preparation and attempt have proven elusive and perhaps the best ‘solution’ of all is merely focusing on the completed crimes that have been committed (such as illegal use of a weapon, acting recklessly, invasion of privacy) that are likely to be deployed over the course of either an attempt or preparation to commit a crime. Regardless, the definition of both legal terms is likely to remain subjective and context-dependent, as well as reliant upon the challenge of defining the mental state of the defendant.
References
Kichyun, P. (1957). Contemporary problems of criminal attempts. NYU Law Review, 1170-
Perkins, R. (1954). Criminal attempt and related problems. UCLA Law Review, 319 -355.
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Students barely have time to read. We got you! Have your literature essay or book review written without having the hassle of reading the book. You can get your literature paper custom-written for you by our literature specialists.
Do you struggle with finance? No need to torture yourself if finance is not your cup of tea. You can order your finance paper from our academic writing service and get 100% original work from competent finance experts.
Computer science is a tough subject. Fortunately, our computer science experts are up to the match. No need to stress and have sleepless nights. Our academic writers will tackle all your computer science assignments and deliver them on time. Let us handle all your python, java, ruby, JavaScript, php , C+ assignments!
While psychology may be an interesting subject, you may lack sufficient time to handle your assignments. Don’t despair; by using our academic writing service, you can be assured of perfect grades. Moreover, your grades will be consistent.
Engineering is quite a demanding subject. Students face a lot of pressure and barely have enough time to do what they love to do. Our academic writing service got you covered! Our engineering specialists follow the paper instructions and ensure timely delivery of the paper.
In the nursing course, you may have difficulties with literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and other assignments. Our nursing assignment writers will offer you professional nursing paper help at low prices.
Truth be told, sociology papers can be quite exhausting. Our academic writing service relieves you of fatigue, pressure, and stress. You can relax and have peace of mind as our academic writers handle your sociology assignment.
We take pride in having some of the best business writers in the industry. Our business writers have a lot of experience in the field. They are reliable, and you can be assured of a high-grade paper. They are able to handle business papers of any subject, length, deadline, and difficulty!
We boast of having some of the most experienced statistics experts in the industry. Our statistics experts have diverse skills, expertise, and knowledge to handle any kind of assignment. They have access to all kinds of software to get your assignment done.
Writing a law essay may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle, especially when you need to know the peculiarities of the legislative framework. Take advantage of our top-notch law specialists and get superb grades and 100% satisfaction.
We have highlighted some of the most popular subjects we handle above. Those are just a tip of the iceberg. We deal in all academic disciplines since our writers are as diverse. They have been drawn from across all disciplines, and orders are assigned to those writers believed to be the best in the field. In a nutshell, there is no task we cannot handle; all you need to do is place your order with us. As long as your instructions are clear, just trust we shall deliver irrespective of the discipline.
Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. We have a stringent recruitment process to ensure that we get only the most competent essay writers in the industry. We also ensure that the writers are handsomely compensated for their value. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. As such, the fluency of language and grammar is impeccable.
There is a very low likelihood that you won’t like the paper.
Not at all. All papers are written from scratch. There is no way your tutor or instructor will realize that you did not write the paper yourself. In fact, we recommend using our assignment help services for consistent results.
We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide. We would not take the risk of submitting plagiarized work and jeopardize your academic journey. Furthermore, we do not sell or use prewritten papers, and each paper is written from scratch.
You determine when you get the paper by setting the deadline when placing the order. All papers are delivered within the deadline. We are well aware that we operate in a time-sensitive industry. As such, we have laid out strategies to ensure that the client receives the paper on time and they never miss the deadline. We understand that papers that are submitted late have some points deducted. We do not want you to miss any points due to late submission. We work on beating deadlines by huge margins in order to ensure that you have ample time to review the paper before you submit it.
We have a privacy and confidentiality policy that guides our work. We NEVER share any customer information with third parties. Noone will ever know that you used our assignment help services. It’s only between you and us. We are bound by our policies to protect the customer’s identity and information. All your information, such as your names, phone number, email, order information, and so on, are protected. We have robust security systems that ensure that your data is protected. Hacking our systems is close to impossible, and it has never happened.
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.
GET A PERFECT SCORE!!! 
Delivering a high-quality product at a reasonable price is not enough anymore.
That’s why we have developed 5 beneficial guarantees that will make your experience with our service enjoyable, easy, and safe.
You have to be 100% sure of the quality of your product to give a money-back guarantee. This describes us perfectly. Make sure that this guarantee is totally transparent.
Read moreEach paper is composed from scratch, according to your instructions. It is then checked by our plagiarism-detection software. There is no gap where plagiarism could squeeze in.
Read moreThanks to our free revisions, there is no way for you to be unsatisfied. We will work on your paper until you are completely happy with the result.
Read moreYour email is safe, as we store it according to international data protection rules. Your bank details are secure, as we use only reliable payment systems.
Read moreBy sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.
Read more