EveryBody's Guide to the Law

You Were Acting Under Threats or Coercion
You are not normally responsible for crimes you commit while acting under physical duress or
coercion. If John takes your son hostage and tells you that he will kill the boy unless you steal
a car for him, you can avoid criminal responsibility for auto theft if you comply with John’s
demand. It is John who would be guilty of auto theft, just as surely as if he had done the act
himself. Duress or coercion does not, however, apply in cases of murder or manslaughter—for
example, someone puts a gun to your head and orders you to kill someone else or he will kill
you. If you do kill the other person, you will be held criminally responsible for that person’s
death.
The Police Entrapped You
Entrapment is a valid defense to certain crimes, such as solicitation for prostitution and selling
drugs. But it is not a defense to crimes involving physical injury or property damage, such as
murder, rape, arson, or robbery. Entrapment occurs when the police talk the defendant into
committing a crime that he or she was not otherwise predisposed to commit. In other words,
the police put the thought of committing the crime into the defendant’s mind.
Entrapment often is asserted when a person is charged with soliciting an undercover police
officer for prostitution. At issue is whether the defendant approached the undercover officer
and offered money in exchange for sexual services, or whether the officer approached the defendant
and offered to engage in sex for a certain price. The question becomes, whose idea was it,
the defendant’s or the police officer’s? If the latter’s, the defendant is not guilty of solicitation.
Entrapment frequently is raised as an issue when the police set up an operation to catch suspected
drug dealers. Entrapment is a valid defense only if you can prove that before the undercover
agent approached you, you were not inclined to deal in drugs.
Domestic Authority
Parents generally are entitled to use reasonable force to discipline their children, without
being criminally liable for assault or battery. If, however, the punishment is excessive and the
child is injured, the privilege is lost and the parent can be held liable for child abuse. The use
of deadly force to discipline a child is never permitted, and if deadly force is used, and a child
dies from it, the parent can be guilty of manslaughter or even murder.
Children
Under the common law rules that some states still apply, a child under the age of seven is
legally incapable of committing a crime because they cannot form the necessary criminal
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