Culpable and reckless conduct is a
common law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
crime in
Scots law
Scots law () is the List of country legal systems, legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing Civil law (legal system), civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different histori ...
.
Overview
Culpable and reckless conduct has no specific definition but deals with culpable and reckless acts which cause injury to others or create the risk of injury, with no effort made to mitigate this risk by the accused. While injury may occur, this would not be deemed as
assault
In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...
, as assault cannot be committed in a reckless or negligent manner.
The crime does not deal with events which involve only civil liability such as injuries caused by
negligence
Negligence ( Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate care expected to be exercised in similar circumstances.
Within the scope of tort law, negligence pertains to harm caused by the violation of a duty of care through a neg ...
which does not amount to a criminal act. It does apply to many events which, had they occurred in
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...
, would have been the same offence whether they were caused intentionally or recklessly but in Scotland fail to fall within the substantive crime due to a lack of intention. This is demonstrated in many cases where an offender is charged with another crime or offence (e.g.
wilful fire raising) as well as this crime and the eventual crime or offence(s) for which the offender might be committed is determined by the proven intentions.
It will often be charged in parallel with other crimes such as wilful fire raising where it is clear that a criminal offence has occurred but the exact offence(s) committed need to be determined by the facts proven in court. The offence carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment but the circumstances (and thus the eventual sentence applied) of individual cases will often fall short of requiring such a punishment and might not proceed beyond the
sheriff court
A sheriff court () is the principal local civil and criminal court in Scotland, with exclusive jurisdiction over all civil cases with a monetary value up to , and with the jurisdiction to hear any criminal case except treason, murder, and ra ...
which has limited sentencing powers.
Recklessness
While there is no statutory definition, a summary of what constitutes the crime can be inferred from a draft Scottish Legal Code which drew upon current law and proposed the following for a statutory offence of recklessness:
Case law
The case ''Her Majesty's Advocate v. Harris''
[''Her Majesty's Advocate v. Harris'', 1993 J.C. 150] states how the crime of culpable and reckless conduct will occur:
Reckless injury
Judicial precedent has developed a crime of unintentionally but recklessly causing injury to another.
This has been proposed in case law as an alternative to assault as there no need to prove "evil intent" (as would be the case for assault). There is no requirement for the accused to actively or deliberately make efforts to cause injury, provided that it is foreseeable injury could be caused by non-action or an omission and that a causal link exists with the injury. The case of ''Kimmins v. Nomand'' displays this point: the accused was detained for a legitimate search by police and denied having needles on their person. A police officer subsequently suffered a needle stick injury when searching the accused, who was laterally charged with "recklessly causing injury".
Reckless endangerment of the lieges
The case of ''Robson v Spiers''
[''Robson v Spiers'', 1999 SLT 1141] establishes the foreseeability of potential danger or injury to the public by the accused's course of action. Again there need not be any physical injury to a person, only the need to demonstrate possible endangerment to the public.
A high degree of recklessness is required, more than what could be construed as carelessness or negligence. The accused must have acted in a manner that demonstrated an utter disregard for the consequences of his conduct on the general public and a total indifference to their safety.
See also
*
Public nuisance
In English criminal law, public nuisance is an act, condition or thing that is illegal because it interferes with the rights of the general public.
In Australia
In ''Kent v Johnson'', the Supreme Court of the ACT held that public nuisance is ...
– former offence under the common law of England and Wales, current offence under the common law of Northern Ireland
*
Reckless endangerment – offence in many jurisdictions in the United States with a similar definition
References
{{reflist
Scottish criminal law
Social ethics
Crimes
Elements of crime
Recklessness (law)