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Duress is pressure exerted upon a person to coerce that person to perform an act they ordinarily would not perform. The notion of duress must be distinguished both from undue influence in the civil law. In criminal law, duress and necessity are different defenses. [1] [2] Duress has two aspects.
Necessity and duress (compulsion) are different defenses in a criminal case. [1] [2] [3] The defense of duress applies when another person threatens imminent harm if defendant did not act to commit the crime. The defense of necessity applies when defendant is forced by natural circumstances to choose between two evils, and the criminal act is ...
However, contrasting to cases involving business parties, the threat to do a lawful act will probably be duress if used against a vulnerable person. [4] An obvious case involving "lawful act duress" is blackmail. The blackmailer does not have to defend the lawful act they threaten (for example, revealing a secret), but they must defend the ...
Duress has been defined as a "threat of harm made to compel a person to do something against his or her will or judgment; esp., a wrongful threat made by one person to compel a manifestation of seeming assent by another person to a transaction without real volition". [5] An example is in Barton v Armstrong, [6] a decision of the Privy Council ...
Coercion used as leverage may force victims to act in a way contrary to their own interests. Coercion can involve not only the infliction of bodily harm, but also psychological abuse (the latter intended to enhance the perceived credibility of the threat). The threat of further harm may also lead to the acquiescence of the person being coerced.
The teacher Ursula painfully tortured, whipped, beaten, and finally burned in Maastricht, AD 1570 engraved by Jan Luyken for the Martyrs Mirror, 1685. A forced confession is a confession obtained from a suspect or a prisoner by means of torture (including enhanced interrogation techniques) or other forms of duress.
An example is that breaking into someone's home during a fire in order to rescue a child inside, is justified. If the same act is done in the reasonable but mistaken belief that there was a fire, then the act is excused. What is justified under a utilitarian perspective might be excused under a retributivist standpoint, and vice versa.
If something is interfering with this control, automatism may be available as an excuse. Duress is not an example of involuntary action as although the choices faced by the person under duress may be difficult, nonetheless they are still acting voluntarily. Some would describe action under duress as non-voluntary as opposed to involuntary.