Actus Reus

Actus Reus is Latin for Guilty Act. It is the Physical element of a crime. There are 3 types of Actus Reus. They are; Voluntary Acts, Omissions and Crimes of Circumstance.

Voluntary Acts are acts you do of your own free will. It must involve some degree of physical control on the part of the defendant. (Hill v Baxter).

An omission is the failure to do something, however there are exceptions. One is where a family relationship exists for example failure to feed…