kadie@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie) (06/15/91)
karl.kleinpaste@osc.edu writes: [...] >Anyone who witnesses a crime and does nothing to stop it is a party to >it. In fact, screwed up though the USA legal system surely is, it >makes a lot of sense that certain crimes are defined in terms of the >failure _of_the_citizenry_ to report other crimes. [...] I won't address the original question or the moral quesiton, just this legal question. In general, a citzen is under no legal obligation to report a crime. The only exceptions I can think of involve child abuse and doctors. - Carl -- Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
karl.kleinpaste@osc.edu (06/17/91)
karl.kleinpaste@osc.edu writes: >Anyone who witnesses a crime and does nothing to stop it is a party to >it. In fact, screwed up though the USA legal system surely is, it >makes a lot of sense that certain crimes are defined in terms of the >failure _of_the_citizenry_ to report other crimes. kadie@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes: In general, a citzen is under no legal obligation to report a crime. The only exceptions I can think of involve child abuse and doctors. I did not say anything about the general case, and quite specifically mentioned "certain crimes"; having spent several years as a foster parent, child abuse was the primary example on my mind at the time of that writing. --karl