Manifest Criminality Case Study

1. What is the principle of manifest criminality? Provide an example. Explain why you agree or disagree.

George Fletcher’s principle of manifest criminality [1] states that a persons thoughts and attitudes have to be put into action for a crime to be committed. The reason that we do not punish people for their thoughts is because it would be “impractical, inequitable, and unjust.” For a person to found criminally liable, a person must have committed an act in support of the crime, otherwise we would be punishing them for their thoughts [2]. Crimes involving an attempt or a conspiracy generally require an act to be committed in furtherance of the criminal activity, even though the actual planned crime failed or was not fully committed [3]. These crimes go beyond mere thought and require overt actions.

An example of manifest criminality would be a woman thinking that she hates her husband so much that she would like to murder him so she could collect on his million dollar life insurance policy instead of being married to him for another thirty years. The wife may even think of elaborate plans in her mind as to how she would murder her husband so as not to be a suspect in the investigation. The wife may think of
When a defendant claims self-defense it must be shown that the need for self-defense was exigent and occurred at that moment in time, the need for self-defense was great, and that self-defense was necessary only for prevention. Preemptive attacks upon a potential suspect that may attack you or another person in the future are not legally covered for purposes of self-defense. Additionally, retaliation against a person who previously attacked is not permissible under the law either. Preemptive attacks and retaliatory attacks would not fall under the laws of self-defense because they are not preventive methods that would be utilized to ward off an