Legal Studies: Surviving the Law | Crime | Part 1

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So, you've seen Suits and you think you've got what it takes to become a lawyer, so you chose Legal Studies for your HSC. As much as we all want to be the next Harvey, Mike and Jessica, I hate to break it to you, Legal studies is not exactly like that (sorry!!). However, it's still heaps of fun and there are so many ways to make it easier!!

Legal Studies is full of content, essays, case studies and memorising. But, don't worry, it's really not that scary once you learn how to tackle these!

Below, I'll go through some general tips and tricks for the topic of Crime, part 1/3 of the Surviving The Law articles.

Crime

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Crime is one of the core topics you will study in HSC Legal Studies. Within this topic, you will study:

- The nature of crime

- The criminal investigation process

- The criminal trial process

- Sentencing and punishment

- Young offenders

- International crime

These topics may look daunting, but, I swear, it's not!! As with every subject, you are required to know pretty much everything about each of these topics!

The biggest piece of advice I can give you, is you must, must, must learn your case studies, dates, and the legislation. The HSC markers will know if you put the wrong year down for legislation.

Within the first topic of The Nature of Crime, you will be asked to learn the basics, such as the meaning of crime, the elements of crime, categories of crime etc. These are fairly simple, it's just a matter of memorising.

For example, Actus Reus and Mens Rea is something that students get quite confused on because they both are Latin words that sound similar. Now, chances are, you haven't heard of these words before so when first learning them, it can be quite difficult to distinguish between the two.

Actus Reus: (Latin for 'guilty act') refers to the psychical act of committing a crime. It also includes the act of omission. Actus Reus is the only element that needs to be established in the case of strict liability offences.

Mens Rea: (Latin for 'guilty mind') refers to the intent of the accused. Proof of mens rea indicates that the accused intended to commit the crime, even if they knew their actions were wrongs. There are three levels: intention, recklessness and criminal negligence

So, as you can see, the two elements are quite similar. One way of remembering the difference between these two is to think of Actus Reus as ACT = the psychical act of committing a crime, and with Mens Rea as MENtality = the intent and mentality of the accused.

Categories of crime is a big one, you have quite a lot of categories to remember and exactly what examples fall under those. For something like this, it's best to make a table in your notes (see example below), highlighting exactly what the offence is and what the examples are. It is so important you have examples memorised of everything because that could potentially be the difference between a band 5 /6 and a band 3/4

Once you've done this table, you now need to elaborate on each offence. This is extremely important because you need to know legislation, cases, any documents or articles. which could all benefit you when writing essays or answering questions.

So for example:

Offences against the person:

- Homicide

• Homicide is the unlawful act of killing another person. It is an overarching word that covers murder, manslaughter, infanticide and deaths by reckless driving.

See how I've written a definition of it. After this, I would elaborate on what murder is, what manslaughter is etc. and ensure I include famous cases, legislation any important information about that specific topic. I would do this for every single example, ensuring I've covered all my bases so when exams roll around, I'm not stuck looking for examples or cases at the last minute.

This way of making notes can be done for the rest of the crime section. Since there is a lot of subtitles and lots of information branching off one another, it's best to use diagrams and mind maps. For example, when writing notes about the criminal investigation process and police powers, use a mind map to highlight the key points of what the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW) (LEPRA) can do (i.e. detain and question suspects, search property and seize evidence, use reasonable force ...).

When including cases and bits of evidence in your notes, highlight them or write them in a different colour, so you can easily pick out the cases without having to read through every section of your notes over and over again (which can be good, but not the most effective way when studying).

Unfortunately, you will need to do a small crime essay for your exam. Don't worry though, it's not super scary, and once you've practised doing 100 of them, you'll be more than ready!!

Essay:

The crime essay is a smaller essay compared to your other topics. Instead of a minimum of 4 topics, you can have a minimum of 3 topics/ paragraphs. But don't let this mean you can slack off, you must have the three strongest points as your arguments.

During class, there's no doubt that you go through the points with your teacher, but make sure you are memorising exactly what the topics are.

So, to make this a bit easier, let's look at a sample crime question. This one is 2019 HSC (the one I sat) Crime Question:

Explain how Post-sentencing Considerations seek to balance community interests and individual rights and freedom.

So on first glance at this question, you're probably sitting there going what the heck, cause that's exactly what I was doing. But then, after a few more times of reading, and taking deep breaths, I worked out what I was going to write about.

So, there are many different topics you can write about for this question including but not limited to:

Parole,

Preventative detention

Continued detention

Protective Custody

Personally, I chose to write about the first three because I remembered what they were, and I was able to pull case studies, and legislation. Now, of course, remember that once you hand in your exam, you never see it again, you don't know where you lost marks, or where you were correct. So, it's always ideal so give it your 100% and write as much as possible that relates to the topic.

Always remember to lead with your strongest argument (all your arguments should be strong) and PLAN!!! I can't stress enough how important it is to plan very quickly what you will be writing about, because this ensures you a) stick to the plan and write within the guidelines and b) you don't start rambling off about something else and waste precious time.

When writing your notes, be sure to include everything that's necessary, so as you flick through, you can easily memorise key points which will help you remember more information.

The only way to become good at the essay is to practise. During my HSC, I had a week between my other exam and my legal exam. This meant that I was pumping out 6-7 essays a day. Since crime isn't too long, you should be able to fit in that many, It was my last exam, so I didn't have anything else to study for, so I was putting in my 100% to get through this. When doing practise exams, make sure you stick to the time limit. This is important because, during an exam, you only get a set amount, which means its crucial to learn to stick to the time given (about 40 mins for crime). You also need to send in your practice questions for marking. Don't just do them and let them sit there, email them to your teacher, go into school and hand them to your teacher, just don't do it the night before the exam and expect them to reply immediately, cause they won't!. By getting feedback, you can see areas where you're lacking and need to work on.

If you need past questions, Art of Smart has heaps of past questions for almost every subject. Or you can find the last 19 years of past HSC Legal Studies Questions here. Ask your teacher to send you your schools trial papers, and other schools around you trial papers for more practise, or ask them to make some up for you. This way, you don't know what questions to expect, which is exactly like the exam.

Multiple Choice:

Use your common sense to answer these, they are pretty easy!! Use the process of elimination, cross out any that is definitely not the correct answer, and then keep doing that until you have worked out the correct answer. Try not to spend too long on multiple choice, you can always come back to it at the end if you have time left. Always, always double-check you have answered every question, do not leave questions blank. You have a 25% chance of getting it correct, just go for it. Don't overthink them, do some working out if you have to, but keep moving. You want to focus on your essays for the majority of the time.