STAGES OF CRIME

Presented by
Shreya Shukla
2083080
BA.LLB ‘A’
 FOUR STAGES IN CRIME
There are four stages in the commission of an offence:
1. Intention
2. Preparation
3. Attempt
4. Accomplishment
Intention

• The initial stage of any offence is the mental or

psycho stage.Emergence of an evil intention in
the mind of the accused.
• In this stage, the offender determines his
motive and his plan of action in relation to the
offence. The irony of this stage is that the law
cannot penalise a person just for intending to
commit an illegal conduct.
• Furthermore, because it is a mental notion,
determining whether or not someone has such
an intention is challenging. It is not enough to
have an intention to commit a crime.
 Preparation
• Preparation is the second stage amongst the stages of
crime. It means to arrange the necessary resources for the
execution of the intentional criminal act.
• Intention and preparation alone are not enough to
constitute a crime. Preparation is not punishable because in
many cases the prosecution fails to prove that the
preparations in the question are for the execution of the
particular crime.
• Again, the law does not take notice, with the exception of a
few situations where the Indian Penal Code specifically
makes preparations punishable.
• Illustration: If A purchases a pistol and keeps the same in
his pocket duly loaded in order to kill his bitter enemy B,
but does nothing more. A has not committed any offence as
StilI he is at the stage of preparation and it will be
impossible for the prosecution to prove that A was carrying
the loaded pistol only for the purpose of killing B.
Attempt
• An attempt is a direct movement towards the
execution of a crime after the preparation of the plan.
• According to law, a person is guilty of an attempt to
commit an offense if he/she does an act which is
more than simply preparatory to the commission of
the offense.
• Moreover, a person is guilty of attempting to commit
an offense even though the facts are such that the
execution of the offense seems to be impossible.
• Illustration: ‘A’ makes an attempt to steal some
valuable things by breaking a box and finds after
opening the box, that there is nothing in it. In this
case, there is no crime occurred but it is punishable
under the Indian Penal Code because it is considered
as an “Attempt to Commit a crime”.
 Accomplishment
• The last stage in the commission of
an offense is its successful
completion. If the accused becomes
successful in his attempt to commit
the crime, he will be guilty of the
complete offense.
• Illustration: A fires at B with the
intention to kill him, if B dies, A will
be guilty for committing the offence
of murder and if B is only injured, it
will be a case of attempt to murder.
Thank you!!