7.1 Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives
7.1.1 Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students will be able to do the following:
- Identify the different types and degrees of crimes against persons.
- Explain how the concept of mens rea and actus reus determine the classification and degree of violent crimes.
- Distinguish between simple assault, aggravated assault, and intimate partner violence.
- Explain the updates made to the legal definition of rape and changes to consent requirements.
- List the different sex crimes that require registration on the national sex offender registry and debate the appropriateness of such a requirement for each crime.
- Understand the factors that determine the degrees of robbery and explain the difference between robbery and burglary.
7.1.2 True Crime Stories: “Overpassing” or Murder?
Figure 7.1 Broken windshield similar to the one on the van hit by a rock during “overpassing”.
In 2017, a group of five teenage boys ages 15 to 18 were playing a game called “overpassing” in which they threw rocks off an interstate overpass down toward the cars traveling below on I-75 in Michigan. When a car was hit, they would yell, “Dinger!” and earn points. When one of the boys, 18-year-old Kyle Anger, threw a six-pound rock that hit the passenger side of the windshield of a van, he got more than a “dinger.” The rock went through the windshield and hit 32-year-old Ken White in the face fracturing his skull, then bounced onto and fractured his chest killing him. Ken White was survived by his fiancé and four young children.
To prepare for the game, the boys had gathered a collection of rocks weighing as much as 20 pounds. They loaded them into the flatbed of a truck and drove to the overpass where they began throwing them at cars driving below. The group saw they had hit the van so they ran away, fleeing the scene. Despite their text communications that said, “We could go to prison for life for this, everyone lay low and no one rat us out!” as well as, “No one saw us, if everyone shuts up we won’t get caught” the police found them anyway. Warrants were issued for their arrests and all the boys surrendered on the day required by the police. At that time, they were formally arrested and each charged with second-degree murder.
After three years in jail awaiting trial because of a series of legal battles, four of the five boys accepted plea deals to a reduced charge of manslaughter. These four boys, who were all minors at the time, were ultimately charged as juveniles and received one year each of probation. However, the boy who threw the rock that killed Ken White, Kyle Anger, was 18 at the time of the incident and automatically charged as an adult. He pled guilty to second-degree murder and received a sentence of 3 to 20 years in prison.
In this chapter, we will discuss the difference between manslaughter and second-degree murder. This horrible example of recklessness showed an extreme indifference to the value of human life. As you read the chapter, you will be able to determine for yourself if this crime fits the description of second-degree murder and whether you agree with allowing four of the defendents to plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
7.1.3 Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives
“Chapter Overview and Learning Objectives” by Jennifer Moreno is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Figure 7.1 Broken windshield similar to the one on the van hit by a rock during “overpassing” by k_samurkas is licensed under Freepik.