LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Define an inchoate crime.
- Distinguish between general and specific attempt statutes.
- Identify and describe the four tests jurisdictions use to ascertain the criminal act element required for attempt.
- Define preparatory crimes.
- Define the criminal intent element required for attempt.
- Identify two potential defenses to attempt.
- Distinguish between factual and legal impossibility.
- Define voluntary abandonment.
- Describe merger and explain the way it affects attempt crimes.
- Analyze the relationship between transferred intent and attempt.
- Distinguish between the grading of attempt and the completed crime.
Attempt, conspiracy, and solicitation are considered inchoate crimes. Inchoatemeans “just begun, incipient, in the early stages.” 1 Inchoate crimes can be left unfinished, or incomplete. Although attempt never results in the finished criminal offense, both conspiracy and solicitation could give rise to separate completed crimes.
The rationale supporting punishment for an inchoate crime is prevention anddeterrence. If a defendant could not be apprehended until a crime is finished, law enforcement would not be able to intervene and avert injury to victim(s) or property. In addition, a defendant who is unable to complete a crime would try again and again, free from any criminal consequences.
The difficulty in holding a defendant accountable for an inchoate or incomplete crime is ascertaining the level of progress necessary to impute criminal responsibility, which is especially daunting with attempt, because in every instance the crime is left unfinished, as is discussed in .
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