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Octavius Robbins
Jan Cunningham, JD; Professor
CJUS 2300
6 February 2024

Before someone can be tried and charged of a crime, their capacity to commit that crime

must be examined. The term capacity in law is referring to the ability to understand the

difference between right and wrong, and the consequences that accompany those actions. The

law provides that during the commission of a crime the said individual must possess the ability to

distinguish between right and wrong while knowing his or her actions are in fact a criminal. For

example, if an eight-year-old girl goes to a retail store with her mom and while her mom is not

looking, she pockets a pair of earrings, that happen to be very expensive. Although, she blatantly

pockets the earrings in front of the store associate, the eight-year-old is classified as an

infant(child) by law, and lacks the capacity to commit crime. This is due to her not having the

mental concept to know the true consequences of this action and less likely to be able to control

her impulses like that of an adult.

This doctrine also plays a huge part in the defense of the mentally ill who claim that in

the moments of their crime, they were unable to distinguish between right and wrong due to a

mental defect. However, Mental illness cases do not receive as much grace as children do in the

court of law. These mental illness cases use a rule called the M’Naghten Rule, a two-prong

approach, the first being the cognitive capacity prong and the second being the moral incapacity

prong. The moral incapacity prong is asking did he or she know that what they were doing was

wrong and or a crime? Moreover, did he or she know what they were doing at all which is the

cognitive capacity prong.

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