Understanding Concurrence in Criminal Law

Understanding how the law operates is crucial to advocating for any community, but for communities that focus on inclusivity and embracing difference, it can be the difference between adequate representation and a denial of justice. The concept of concurrence in criminal law can be an excellent example of a legal principle that you might not understand until you read about it, and can open the door for more questions about why certain laws are structured the way that they are and how they could be made better.

Concurrence is an element of a crime that establishes that the intent and the act must be present at the same time. For example, if you wanted a criminal law to address sex crimes against children, the rape of a child statute would have the following components before it would apply:

To establish the crime of rape of a child with one single statute, however, law would be required to amend their laws to show what the appropriate intent is, as this can vary by state and jurisdiction. That is, most jurisdictions would not apply the requirement at the same time to both recklessness and negligence that would apply to understandings of the higher states of intent, such as mens rea. Since statutes can vary by state, however, a mens rea of negligence would likely be considered inappropriate for a crime as serious as the rape of a child.

Of course, states can be consistent or inconsistent in their concurrence elements and to do so may face a constitutional challenge. This is even more important when there is a gap or omission in the statute; a man who rapes or assaults a child with a mental disability should be punished more severely than someone who does the same thing without such a disability. If this is not the case, the law could be challenged and made better.

Legal Knowledge Empowers Communities

Communities that focus on inclusivity, like Autism Network Singapore, benefit from knowing how the law applies to people when the elements of a crime are difficult to understand, deliberately or unintentionally discriminatory, or simply not common knowledge. Concurrence requires a specific understanding of the principles of criminal law, so in cases like the rape or assault of a child, this is a very serious consideration. If an individual with autism commits one of these crimes, then, this could be something that would come into play, and they would deserve far better protecting than what the inconsistency of this area of the law permits.

So, while Autism Network Singapore is a community-focused organization with a focus on developing an understanding of autism, each law that governs those with autism, as well as their caretakers, communities and advocates, also deserves a critical analysis to determine how best to protect all involved and ensure justice is served. According to the in depth guide on comprehensive concurrence definitions in criminal law, this is just one example of the complex nature of criminal law in general, and the importance of criminal law to the world around us.