The Crime Of Assistance: Aiding And Abetting
Posted on: 1 August 2019
If you help someone to commit a crime, it's not just that person who will be charged with a crime; you will also be facing the criminal charges of aiding and abetting the crime. Below are two elements the circumstances of your actions have to meet to trigger aiding and abetting charges.
Someone Else Committed the Crime
If two or more people commit a crime, then the government can prosecute them jointly for the crime. However, if one person commits a crime and another person only offers them a little assistance, one person gets prosecuted for the crime while the assistant gets prosecuted for aiding and abetting a crime. The degree of assistance, which is a subjective view of the court, determines whether the two are charged as joint principals or one person is charged with aiding and abetting a crime.
Consider an example where two people plan to rob a bank, with one person supplying the weapons, another supplying the bank plans, and both participating in the actual robbery. In this case, both parties will be charged with robbery. Contrast this with another example where one person plans to rob a bank, and their friend only provides them with information about the bank's security guards but doesn't participate in the crime further. In this case, the first person will be charged with robbery while the second person gets charged with aiding and abetting a robbery.
You Knew About the Crime
Aiding and abetting are specific intent crimes. A person can only be charged with aiding and abetting a crime if they knew about the principal's (the main participant) criminal intentions or acts. Accidental participation in crime won't elicit the same charges.
Say you are a guard at a local store and you know a friend is planning to rob the store. If you provide the friend with information on the store's security measures, you can be charged with aiding and abetting the robbery. The situation is different if you accidentally leak information about your store's weak security measures when venting about your job to a friend who then ends up robbing the store. In this case, you didn't know about your friend's intentions so your actions don't constitute a crime.
Note that you can be charged as an accessory to crime whether you acted before or after the principal committed the crime. If your actions took place before the crime, you will be charged as an accessory before the fact. If your actions were after the crime, then you will be charged as an accessory after the fact. Both are serious crimes that are best handled by a criminal defense lawyer.
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