NCJ Number
75358
Date Published
1975
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This instructional package is designed to provide an overview of California Penal Code provisions as they apply to police officers, and includes an audio cassette, a filmstrip, and a workbook.
Abstract
Included in this overview are considerations of the statutory bases of criminal law in California, basic kinds of criminal acts and criminal intents, exceptions which can interrupt the unity of act and intent necessary to establish corpus delicti, and the basic concept behind enforcement procedures. Crime is defined as an act in violation of a statute to which a penalty is attached by law. A relationship must be found between an act and an intent to commit it or between an act and criminally negligent action which allowed the act to occur before a crime can be considered to have occurred. Three kinds of criminal intent exist: (1) general, (2) specific, and (3) constructive. Although the penal code states that all persons are capable of committing crimes the following are excused: juveniles unable to differentiate between right and wrong; insane persons; idiots; those committing crimes as honest mistakes, accidents, or in the absence of factual knowledge; women committing misdemeanors under coercion by their husbands; and persons under the threat of immediate great bodily harm. The workbook includes supplemental activities and test questions, and is designed for individualized instructional use. An instructor's answer key is also included.