Actus reus, sometimes called the external element or the objective element of a crime, is the Latin term for the "guilty act" which, when proved beyond a reasonable doubt in combination with the mens rea, "guilty mind", produces criminal liability in the common law-based criminal law jurisdictions of Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, England and Wales, Ireland and the United States. In the United States, some crimes also require proof of an attendant circumstance.
In order for an actus reus to be committed there has to have been an act. Various common law jurisdictions define act differently but generally, an act is a "bodily movement whether voluntary or involuntary."[2] In Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660 (1962), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a California law making it illegal to be a drug addict was unconstitutional because the mere status of being a drug addict was not an act and thus not criminal.
An act can consist of commission, omission or possession.
Omission involves a failure to engage in a necessary bodily movement resulting in injury. As with commission acts, omission acts can be reasoned causally using the but for approach. But for not having acted, the injury would not have occurred. The Model Penal Code specifically outlines specifications for criminal omissions:[3]
1.the omission is expressly made sufficient by the law defining the offense; or
2.a duty to perform the omitted act is otherwise imposed by law (for example one must file a tax return).
So if legislation specifically criminalizes an omission through statute; or a duty that would normally be expected was omitted and caused injury, an actus reus has occurred.wikepedia
It is the law that you must report child abuse or endangerment IMO. If you are aware or witness abuse and do not report it you are partially responsible for injury to a child. IMO:moo::twocents: Would a reasonable prudent person have taken a child into the car and left town limits for any reason; should that person be held accountable then for what happens to that child. In this case under his care and with his act of transporting her to the scene the child ended up murdered and disposed of and as the crown believes raped. JMO
