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Criminal law
Elements
Actus reus
Mens rea
Causation
Concurrence
Scope of criminal liability
Accessory
Accomplice
Complicity
Corporate
Principal
Vicarious
Severity of offense
Felony (or Indictable offense)
Infraction (also called violation)
Misdemeanor (or Summary offense)
Inchoate offenses
Attempt
Conspiracy
Incitement
Solicitation
Offense against the person
Assassination
Assault
Battery
Child abuse
Criminal negligence
Defamation
Domestic violence
False imprisonment
Frameup
Harassment
Home invasion
Homicide
Human trafficking
Intimidation
Kidnapping
Menacing
Manslaughter (corporate)
Mayhem
Murder
felony
Negligent homicide
Robbery
Stalking
Torture
Sexual offenses
Adultery
Bigamy
Child sexual abuse
Cybersex trafficking
Fornication
Homosexuality
Incest
Indecent exposure
Masturbation
Obscenity
Prostitution
Rape
Sex trafficking
Sexual assault
Sexual slavery
Voyeurism
Crimes against property
Arson
Arms trafficking
Blackmail
Bribery
Burglary
Embezzlement
Extortion
False pretenses
Forgery
Fraud
Gambling
Intellectual property violation
Larceny
Looting
Payola
Pickpocketing
Possessing stolen property
Robbery
Smuggling
Tax evasion
Theft
Trespass to land
Vandalism, Mischief
Crimes against justice
Compounding
Malfeasance in office
Miscarriage of justice
Misprision
Obstruction
Perjury
Perverting the course of justice
Crimes against the public
Apostasy
Begging
Censorship violation
Dueling
Genocide
Hostage-taking
Illegal consumption (such as prohibition of drugs, alcohol, and smoking)
Miscegenation
Piracy
Regicide
Terrorism
Usurpation
War crimes
Crimes against animals
Cruelty to animals
Poaching
Wildlife smuggling
Bestiality
Crimes against the state
Lèse-majesté
Treason
Espionage
Secession
Sedition
Subversion
Defenses to liability
Actual innocence
Automatism
Consent
Defense of property
Diminished responsibility
Duress
Entrapment
Ignorantia juris non excusat
Infancy
Insanity
Justification
Mistake (of law)
Necessity
Provocation
Self-defense
Other common-law areas
Contracts
Defenses
Evidence
Property
Torts
Wills, trusts and estates
Portals
Law
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South African criminal law is the body of national law relating to crime in South Africa. In the definition of Van der Walt et al., a crime is "conduct which common or statute law prohibits and expressly or impliedly subjects to punishment remissible by the state alone and which the offender cannot avoid by his own act once he has been convicted."[1] Crime involves the infliction of harm against society. The function or object of criminal law is to provide a social mechanism with which to coerce members of society to abstain from conduct that is harmful to the interests of society.
In South Africa, as in most adversarial legal systems, the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The sources of South African criminal law are to be found in the common law, in case law and in legislation.
Criminal law (which is to be distinguished from its civil counterpart) forms part of the public law of South Africa,[2] as well as of the substantive law (as opposed to the procedural).[3] The study of "criminal law" generally focuses on the substantive law: namely, the principles of law according to which criminal liability (guilt or innocence) is determined, whereas the law of criminal procedure, together with the law of evidence, generally focuses on the procedures used to decide criminal liability and theories of punishment.[4] A study of the substantive criminal law may be divided into two broad sections:
an examination of the general principles of liability (applicable to crimes generally); and
an examination of the definitions and particular requirements of the various individual crimes or "specific offences."[4]
A distinction must be drawn also between national and international criminal law. The term "criminal law" usually refers to internal or domestic or national criminal law, which is governed by the legal system of the country concerned. The term "international criminal law," denoting a more recent branch of the law, is viewed by some as a branch of public international law, while others contend that it is, "at least in the material sense (and to a growing extent also in the institutional and procedural sense), a discipline in its own right."[4]
^Va n der Wait et al. 1985, p. 24.
^The state, that is, plays an active role in criminal litigation.
^"Criminal procedure is, from the point of view of criminal law, an important auxiliary branch of the law" (Snyman 2008, p. 3).
^ abcKemp Criminal Law 4.
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