Official OCR A2 Criminal Law 2016 Thread

Why?! It's possibly the nicest topic after AR I think

It's mind-numbingly boring. I'm still waiting until my two exams on Wednesday are over so I can get back to memorising cases and the points of law!

yeah me too, i haven't looked at law for a good week now. Got some exams tomorrow then the rest aren't until next week so gonna start law tomorrow night.

Honestly can't wait until it's over - I'm so tired. I'm hoping to see everyone back on here on results day to discuss their grade!

Really it's all just a game of memory. As long as you remember the basic points of law and have your eight cases for each topic (which is a lot, tbh) AND know exactly how to structure your answers, you're good to go!

Are you looking at studying Law in university?

hey i need help, ive left it a week to revise for my criminal paper and ive totally forgot the layout of the paper as im not in college any more im just doing it as an external student. I know you have to answer 2 50 mark questions and another which has less marks. But i really dont know what youre meant to include is it 8 cases and how do you start and finish the essays? Also needs a lot of help with part C question as my teachers never taught us it properly last year and the layout of it.

Many thanks.

Just wondering, Is there any difference between section B and section C except the marks?

yeah it really is just a memory test! The structure is key and thats the thing i struggle on most haha.

And yeah hopefully! (I don't know why though aha) are you?

Not much since they're both basically the application of the law. The only difference is that in section B you need to go into detail about AO1, whereas in section C you just need to briefly outline what is required to be guilty/not guilty of the particular offence.



Yep! If I even get the grades... if not, I'll probably try and get into Economics/Computer Science.

My law teacher said these were likely to come up on Section A:

Basic: Mens Rea (advised not to do it) or Attempts
Offence: Non-fatal or Theft
Defense: Intoxication as hasn't been on for 7 past exams (since 2011 Jan)

Also guys my predictions for section A are:

- Involuntary Manslaughter
- Causation/intention
- Intoxication

Thanks! Just wondering, why were you advised not to do Mens rea?

my law teacher said that its a tricky question and after teaching law at 3 colleges found that students who picked that question for Section A tend to do bad on it which then affects their overall grade

For the section A questions how have you guys been taught to do your answers?
We have always been taught to integrate AO1 and AO2 so your paragraphs will be relating to the issue as opposed to the law and you weave the law in to it. So for example on an essay I did about insanity and automatism my paragraphs were:
legal vs medical definition
Including certain illnesses such as diabetes/sleepwalking as 'insanity'
Overlap between insanity and automatism
Reform
(I got nearly full marks for this essay)
I then put specific law points within those paragraphs. I'm just a bit worried because all the sample essays I've read online tend to separate the AO1 and AO2 so will have 2 paragraphs explaining the law then 2 talking about issues.
Which is the correct way to do it or is it up to you how you chose to answer it?

Is this AO1 or AO2 Points? (when answering a question on causation)

White was convicted of attempted murder and not the complete offence murder as he was not the factual cause of his mothers death. Factual causation applies the but for test and therefore the victim in this case would have died even without the defendants actions.

A01 for mentioning the case and explaining.
A02 for analysing the key factors of why the but for test stopped white from getting convicted of murder...