LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Distinguish between accomplice liability and vicarious liability.
- Distinguish between corporate criminal vicarious liability and individual criminal vicarious liability.
Vicarious liability, a concept discussed in The Elements of a Crime, also transfers liability from one defendant to another. However, vicarious liability should not be confused with accomplice liability. Accomplice liability is based on the defendant’s participation in a criminal enterprise and complicity with the criminal actor or principal, but vicarious liability transfers a defendant’s criminal responsibility for the crime to a different defendant because of a special relationship. With vicarious liability, the acting defendant also is criminally responsible for his or her conduct. Similar to the civil law concept of respondeat superior discussed in Introduction to Criminal Law, vicarious liability in criminal law is common between employers and employees. It is also the basis of corporate liability, which is discussed in Corporate Liability.
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