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In criminal law, a duress defense is similar to a plea of guilty, admitting partial culpability, so that if the defense is not accepted then the criminal act is admitted. Duress or coercion can also be raised in an allegation of rape or other sexual assault to negate a defense of consent on the part of the person making the allegation.
Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ need quotation to verify ] [ 3 ] It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to induce a desired response.
Crimes closely related to intimidation are menacing, coercion, terrorizing, [3] and assault. [note 1] In California, making criminal threats is a wobbler and may be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony under California Penal Code 422. [21] A felony criminal threat is a strike under California's three strikes law.
Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat.. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a threat to do something that would cause a person to suffer embarrassment or financial loss. [1]
The Council of Europe's 2011 Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) contains a consent-based definition of sexual violence in Article 36. [18] This mandates all Parties that have ratified the convention to amend their legislation from a coercion-based to a consent-based model. [19]
A valid entrapment defense has two related elements: [45] government inducement of the crime, and; the defendant's lack of predisposition to engage in the criminal conduct. The federal entrapment defense is based upon statutory construction, the federal courts' interpretation of the will of Congress in passing the criminal statutes.
For example, a charge of assault on a police officer may be negated by genuine (and perhaps reasonable) mistake of fact that the person the defendant assaulted was a criminal and not an officer, thus allowing a defense of use of force to prevent a violent crime (generally part of self-defense/defense of person). [12]
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases.