Attempt was originally an offence under the common law of England.
Attempt crimes are crimes where the defendant's actions have the form of the actual enaction of the crime itself: the actions must go beyond mere preparation.
The essence of the crime of attempt is that the defendant has failed to commit the actus reus (the Latin term for the "guilty act") of the full offense, but has the direct and specific intent to commit that full offense. The normal rule for establishing criminal liability is to prove an actus reus accompanied by a mens rea ("guilty mind") at the relevant time (see concurrence and strict liability offenses as the exception to the rule).
Read more about Attempt: The actus Reus of Attempted Crime, The Question of Impossibility, The mens Rea of Attempted Crime, No Attempt, Abandonment
Famous quotes containing the word attempt:
“The meeting, in spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed me one of the delegates, so that in getting Baker the nomination, I shall be “fixed” a good deal like a fellow who is made groomsman to the man what has cut him out, and is marrying his own dear “gal.””
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Every man is in a state of conflict, owing to his attempt to reconcile himself and his relationship with life to his conception of harmony. This conflict makes his soul a battlefield, where the forces that wish this reconciliation fight those that do not and reject the alternative solutions they offer. Works of art are attempts to fight out this conflict in the imaginative world.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Ulysses ... is a dogged attempt to cover the universe with mud, an inverted Victorianism, an attempt to make crossness and dirt succeed where sweetness and light failed, a simplification of the human character in the interests of Hell.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)