CRIMINAL LAW DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. CRIMINAL LAW- is that branch or division of law which defines crimes, treats of their nature, and
provides for their punishment.

2. CRIME- crime is defined as an act committed or omitted in violation of public law forbidding or
commanding it.

3. GENERAL (characteristic of criminal law) – general, in that criminal law is binding on all persons who
live or sojourn in Philippine territory.

4. TERRITORIAL (characteristic of criminal law) - in that criminal law undertakes to punish crimes
committee within Philippine territory.

5. PROSPECTIVE-(characteristic of criminal law)- in that a penal law cannot make an act punishable in a
manner in which it was not punishable when committed.

6. FRENCH RULE- such crimes are not triable in courts of that country, unless their commission affects
the peace and security of the territory or the safety of the state is endangered.

7. ENGLISH RULE-such crimes are triable in that country, unless they merely affect things within the
vessel or they refer to the internal management thereof.

8. FELONIES- felonies are acts and omissions punishable by the revised penal code.

9. ACT- any bodily movement tending to produce some effect in the external world.

10. OMISSION- is meant inaction, the failure to perform a positive duty which one is bound to do.

11. MISTAKE OF FACT- is a misapprehension of fact on the part of the person who caused injury to
another.

12. MALA IN SE- wrongful from their nature, those so serious in their effects on society as to call for the
almost unanimous condemnation of its members and defined and penalized by the Revised Penal Code.

13. MALA PROHIBITA- wrong merely because prohibited by statute, are violations of mere rules of
convenience designed to secure a more orderly regulation of the affairs of society. The term mala
prohibita refers generally to acts made criminal by special laws.

14. INTENT- intent is the purpose to use a particular means to effect such result.

15. MOTIVE- motive is the moving power which impels one to action for a definite result.

16. CONSUMMATED FELONY- a felony is consummated when all the elements necessary for its
execution and accomplishment are present.
17. FRUSTRATED FELONY- when the offender performs all the acts of execution which would produce
the felony as a consequence but which nevertheless, do not produce it by reason of causes independent
of the will of the perpetrator.

18. ATTEMPTED FELONY- when the offender commences the commission of a felony directly by overt
acts, and does not perform all the acts of execution which should produce the felony by reason of some
cause or accident other than his own spontaneous desistance.

19. OVERT ACTS- an overt act is some physical activity or deed, indicating the intention to commit a
particular crime, more than a mere planning or preparation, which if carried to its complete termination
following its natural course, without being frustrated by external obstacles nor by the voluntary
desistance of the perpetrator, will logically and necessarily ripen into a concrete offense.

20. INDETERMINATE OFFENSE- one where purpose of offender in the performing an act is not certain. Its
nature in relation to its objective is ambiguous.

21. CONSPIRACY- conspiracy exists when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning the
commission of a felony and decide to commit it.

22. PROPOSAL- there is a proposal when the person who has decided to commit a felony proposes its
execution to some other person or persons.

23. IMPUTABILITY- is the quality by which an act may be ascribed to a person as its author or owner. It
implies that the act committed has been freely and consciously done and may, therefore, be put down
to the doer as his very own.

24. RESPONSIBILITY- is the obligation of suffering the consequences of crime. It is the obligation of
taking the penal and civil consequences of the crime.

25. GUILT- guilt is an element of responsibility, for a man cannot be made to answer for the
consequences of a crime unless he is guilty.

26. GRAVE FELONIES- are those to which the law attaches the capital punishment or penalties which in
any of their periods are afflictive.

27. LESS GRAVE FELONIES- are those which the law punishes with penalties which in their maximum
period are correctional.

28. LIGHT FELONIES- are those infractions of law for the commission of which the penalty of arresto
menor or a fine not exceeding 200 pesos, is provided.

29. JUSTIFYING CIRCUMSTANCES- are those where the act of a person is said to be in accordance with
law, so that such person is deemed not to have transgressed the law and is free from both criminal and
civil liability.
30. EXEMPTING CICUMSTANCES (non-imputability) - are those grounds for exemption from punishment
because there is wanting in the agent of the crime any of the conditions which make the act voluntary,
or negligent.

31. MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES- those which, if present in the commission of the crime, do not
entirely