What is the causal relationship in criminal law?

Legal analysis: Causation in criminal law refers to the relationship between the harmful act and the harmful result. Causation determines whether a crime is committed and whether the crime has been committed.

First of all, the completion of an intentional crime requires an examination of the causal relationship between the act and the result, and if the intentional act does not lead to the occurrence of a harmful result, it cannot be judged that there is a causal relationship between the two. For example, A**B, B died in a car accident on the way to the hospital**, at this time, A's ** behavior cannot be attributed to the direct cause of B's death, because B's death was due to the car accident itself, and there is no direct causal relationship between ** and death. In the case of negligence crimes, it is necessary to examine whether there is a causal relationship between the negligent act and the harmful result.

The crime of negligence can only be established if there is an actual harmful result, therefore, it must be the harmful act that causes the harmful result to occur, and the crime of negligence can be established at this time.

Legal basis: Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 14: Intentional crimes are committed intentionally where one clearly knows that one's conduct will have consequences that are harmful to society, and hopes or allows such consequences to occur, thus constituting a crime. Those who commit intentional crimes shall bear criminal responsibility.

Article 15: Crimes of negligence are crimes where one should foresee that one's conduct might have consequences that endanger society, but did not foresee it because of negligence, or had foreseen it and was credulous enough to believe that it could have been avoided, resulting in such a result. Only those who commit crimes of negligence shall be criminally liable if the law provides for them.

The causal relationship in criminal law refers to the relationship between the cause and the cause of the harmful result.

Further information is as follows:

The judgment of causation in criminal law includes two levels (or stages), the first level is the attribution judgment of factual causation, and the conditional theory should be adopted.

In this regard, China's traditional doctrine is inherited from the Soviet Union's theory of "necessity-chance" causality, and the current influential doctrine is inherited from Japan's theory of considerable causality and Germany's objective theory of attribution.

The theory of "necessity - chance" causality examines the degree of connection between behavior and effect, and the conclusions of causality judgment for many situations are consistent with the general theory of German and Japanese selling. It is undeniable that the theory of "necessity-chance" causality contains a certain rational component.

However, it adopts a philosophical discourse system and theoretical paradigm, lacks legal value considerations, does not create a relatively clear judgment rule, and is weak in the face of complex causal situations, so it is gradually declining.

The theory of considerable causality is a common theory in Japan, and it has gradually become a mainstream theory in Japan. "Equivalent" means that the result of the act "normally occurs", and the result is caused by the lawfulness of the act (or necessarily in accordance with objective laws). The judgment of equivalence is based on objective laws and empirical rules, and considers the regularity and commonality of the results of behavior.

The advantage of this is that for complex situations such as intervening factors, specific judgment rules for causality are constructed. including the degree of danger of the behaviour leading to the outcome; the size of the abnormality of the intervening factor itself; the size of the effect of the intervening factors on the occurrence of the outcome; whether the intervening factor is the jurisdiction of the perpetrator, etc. This makes the theory of considerable causation relatively clear, convenient to apply in judicial practice, and has great advantages.

The causal relationship in the Criminal Code refers to the harmful act of the criminal law that causes a harmful result, and the relationship between the two is that of causing and being caused. Usually causality exists objectively and does not depend on people's subjectivity; It is manifested as a causal link between people's harmful behaviors and harmful results; The cause comes first, the effect comes later. A case-by-case analysis is required.

Legal basis

Article 14 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China: Intentional crimes are committed when one clearly knows that one's conduct will have a result that is harmful to society, and hopes or allows such a result to occur, thus constituting a crime. Those who commit intentional crimes shall bear criminal responsibility.

Causation in criminal law refers to the causal relationship between the harmful act and the harmful result, and refers to the relationship between the cause and the cause of the harmful act in the objective elements of the crime. When a harmful result occurs, it is necessary to determine whether a person is responsible for the outcome by ascertaining whether there is a causal link between the harmful act he committed and the outcome.

The causal relationship of criminal law is related to the purpose, task, and function of criminal law, so it has its own subjective judgment. Criminal law causation is governed by the purposes of criminal law. Whether or not a certain act has a causal relationship with the harmful outcome of the criminal law must be based on the subjective judgment of the legislator and the judiciary.

This judgment is based on certain objective factual connections, including factual causation. For example, the crime of intentional homicide, in which a doctor intentionally injects poison and causes the death of a patient, constitutes the crime of intentional homicide by acting, and if the doctor refuses to help the patient when he asks for help, resulting in his death, it constitutes the crime of intentional homicide by omission. In the former, the causal relationship in criminal law is based on the actor's act and the harmful result, while the latter is based on the actor's omission, the harmful result, and the actor's obligation to act.

However, in the judgment of causality in criminal law, factual causation is the material premise of causation in criminal law, and as long as there is such a necessary connection between an act and the harmful result, regardless of the size of the effect or the distance, it should be included in the candidate object of causation in criminal law as a factual cause, and it is not possible to distinguish between cause and condition, so as to exclude some necessary conditions from this scope. It is even necessary to consider that there is a certain factual connection to avoid unreasonable judgments.