The crime of abstention.

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Faculty of Law - Mansoura University

Abstract

The division of crimes into positive crimes and negative crimes in jurisprudence is based on the nature of the act or behavior punishable by law, and if this behavior is positive, the crime is positive, such as murder, beating, wounding, theft, fraud, rape and slander, and this type of crime is also called the expression "crimes of commission". If the conduct constituting the offence is constituted as an "omission",  Any reluctance to perform an act imposed by law, the crime is negative, such as failure to testify, failure to pay alimony and failure to report the newborn. Negative crimes, in turn, are divided into two types: the first is based on criminal behavior alone, which is "abstinence" and is called "crimes of abstract abstinence", in these crimes the legislator punishes the mere failure of the offender to perform a certain act that he should have done legally. The criminal consequence is not an element of the material element of the crime. The second is called "abstinence crimes with consequence", meaning that the criminal consequence is considered one of the elements of the material element in these crimes, for example, the mother's refusal to breastfeed her child with the intention of killing him, and the criminal result is actually achieved as an effect of this abstinence.

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