Study On Proving Subjective Components Of A Crime

Subjective components of a crime include subjective fault (intention and negligence),criminal intent and motive of the doer. The criminal law of China insists on the principle of consistency between the subjective and the objective, and the subjective components of crimes is an important part of the component for crimes in China, with great significance on conviction and sentencing. However, the subjective aspect of a crime exists in the mind of the doer which is difficult for judicial officials to recognize and grasp. In some cases,even the doer himself/herself doesn't have a completely clear clue of his/her true idea.By comparison, therefore, the subjective component of a crime is more difficult to prove than the objective component. In judicial practices,to prove the subjective component of a crime often confuses judicial officials. In individual cases, judicial officials often make their choice on whether they should stick to the principle of in dubio pro reo or should they perform reasoning considering the proofs of the entire case based on their own understanding. And two erroneous tendencies thus come to being.One is to fail to correctly apply logical reasoning due to overcaution in recognizing the subjective components and to overly mechanical understanding of the laws, resulting in connived crimes. The other is to be too arbitrary on recognizing the subjective components, misunderstand relevant judicial interpretation and in fact lower the standard of certification, resulting in objective imputation. All of these being said, this paper sets out from the problems occurred in practices and tries to propose various methods for proving of subjective components in practice as well as areas needing attention when these methods are applied, on the basis of analysis of specific content of the subjective components of crimes and elaboration of basic theory of criminal proving.This paper also includes specific cases for analysis so as to provide some value of reference for judicial practices. This paper is comprised of four parts:The first part is general overview of the subjective components. In this part,clarification has been made on the proving objects, including general introduction of proving criminal intent, criminal negligence, criminal intent, subjective knowing and occupying illegally as object, so as to lay the foundation for studies detailed in subsequent part of this paper.The second part is the basic principles for proving criminal actions,which includes the micro aspect and macro aspect. To be specific, the micro aspect is about the basic laws of criminal action proving. The macro aspect includes proving responsibility,proving standard, etc., on the basis of which the particularity of the difficulty in proving the subjective components of a crime is discussed.The third part elaborates the methods for proving subjective components of a crime,which include Proving Using Direct Proofs, Reasoning with Indirect Proofs, Criminal Presumption,Partial Responsibility Undertaken by the Defendant, Application of Step-Like Accusation, Liability without Fault, and Legal Fiction. This part analyzes specific areas needing attention when these methods are applied. Criminal presumption and partial responsibility undertaken by the defendant should be applied with caution.Application of step-like accusation, liability without fault and legal fiction are legislative methods whose application in solving proving difficulties is limited.The forth part explores and analyzes methods that can overcome difficulties in proving subjective components, proposes that the main method for solving the difficulty in proving the subject of a crime is still Proving Using Indirect Proofs,and highlights the reasoning process, requirements and methods for proving with indirect proofs.Finally, it expounds, with typical examples, detailed application of indirect proofs in proving the subjective component of a crime.