The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, diagram answer plans, suggested answers, author commentary, and advice on study skills. This includes pitfalls to avoid in the caution sections; and tips for gaining extra marks in questions. Further reading is provided at the end of chapters. Concentrate Questions & Answers Criminal Law offers advice on what to expect in exams and how best to prepare. The book begins by looking at exam and study techniques and then moves on to consider the elements of a crime (including actus reus and mens rea), murder and manslaughter, non-fatal offences, and sexual offences. It then looks at a range of property offences, before exploring the defences in depth. The book concludes with a consideration of secondary participation and inchoate offences, a chapter on mixed questions, and a chapter on how to tackle coursework assessments.
Chapter
7. Homicide I
Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses murder, arguably the most serious crime in English law. Murder is where D kills V, and D intends to kill or intends to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH). The most common criticism of the offence of murder is that the sentence is mandatory irrespective of whether the mens rea is the more serious form (intent to kill) or the less serious form (intent to cause GBH). There were three partial defences to murder under the Homicide Act 1957 (diminished responsibility, provocation, and suicide pact). There are three partial defences to murder under the Homicide Act 1957 as amended and the Coroners and Justice Act 2009: diminished responsibility, loss of self-control, and suicide pact. The chapter considers the first two in detail. These are partial defences because they result in a conviction for manslaughter rather than a full acquittal.
Chapter
3. Murder and Manslaughter
The Concentrate Questions and Answers series offers the best preparation for tackling exam questions. Each book includes typical questions, diagram answer plans, suggested answers, author commentary, and advice on study skills. This chapter presents sample exam questions on murder and manslaughter and suggested answers. The key issues of direct and oblique intent as it applies to murder are considered. The chapter also deals with the changes to the partial defences to murder (loss of control and diminished responsibility) brought about by the statutory provisions in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, and the differences between the types of involuntary manslaughter (by an unlawful act, by gross negligence, and by recklessness).
