The Parties to a Crime

The Parties to a Crime

Suppose you planned a crime but got a friend to commit it for you. Would you, as well as your friend, be guilty of an offence? You would likely answer yes to this question, and you would be right; our sense of justice would be outraged otherwise.

The Criminal Code doesn't limit responsibility to the person who has actually committed an offence. If it did one result would be that most would-be criminals with any intelligence at all would probably do their best to recruit others to actually commit the crimes they plan. In fact, a situation like this already exists in relation to the Youth Criminal Justice Act (and even more so with its predecessor, the Young Offenders Act ); adult criminals sometimes solicit the help of young people to commit crimes for them, believing that with the easier punishments given young offenders, there is less chance that anyone will suffer much if they are caught. However, the fact is that anyone caught doing this will face charges along with the young offenders working for them.

People involved in an offence can generally be classified into one of the groups in the following chart.

Party to the Offence	Principal Offender: the person playing the most active role - usually the one who commits the crime.  Abettor: a person who is present and assists or encourages the principal offender at the time of the offence.
Counsellor	A person who advises or incites the principal offender to commit the crime or procures aid to commit it.
Accessory After the Fact	A person who, for whatever reason, assists the principal offender after the crime has been committed - either by helping him or her escape or by providing food and shelter.