On The Theory Of Voluntary Act In The American Criminal Law And Its Reference

In American Criminal law, actus reus is an important factor to a crime, but anact must be voluntary if it want to be a actus reus, that is to say, it must meet therequirements of a voluntary act, in other words, a crime is based on a actus reus, anda actus reus is based on a voluntary act. So, voluntary act has the fundamental statusin the theory of American criminal law. And no matter in the general liability crimewhich requires mens rea, or in the strict liability crime which can ignore mens rea, avoluntary act is the essential factor. Voluntary act is constituted by two importantelements——the objective act and act of voluntariness. If there is only objective act,such as a inadvertently reflex action can not be called a voluntary act, though itcauses harm to others, and there is only voluntariness without the act reflecting it, notonly the act has no way to exist, but also the voluntariness can’t be measured,therefore, when the two factors are united in wedlock, voluntary act is truly realexisted. Voluntary act mainly has three categories, in addition to the obvious action,omission is also the typical types of voluntary act, when one having the relevantobligations under the premise does not fulfill the corresponding obligation and shouldbe held criminally liable. And possession when the actor recognizes the state of thecontrol and domination of a particular object, but knowingly obtain or accept theobject, or when he has sufficient time to cease to hold the object but he doesn’tterminate, is also an important type of voluntary act. Actus reus and mens rea are thetwo elements of the crime, voluntary act as the core part of actus reus make on behalfof the objective aspect of the crime, and mens rea represents subjective aspect of thecrime, but the two are not incompatible, on the contrary,they are closely linked, inparticular, there is a blend in a specific crime. Mens rea is able to guide theimplementation of a voluntary act, and voluntary act can reflect the actor’s mens rea,the two tend to influence each other, thus contributing to the completion of the crime.The theory of voluntary act is an important part of the theory of act, studying it is ofgreat significance to improve the criminal law theory, and can bring reference valuefor the construction of China’s criminal Law.