ABSTRACT
When most people think of criminal justice, they tend to think of criminal injustice. This can take many forms. The most serious miscarriages of justice involve judicial errors at the time of trial: Innocent people can be convicted, and the guilty can be acquitted. Criminal laws specify the actions that are criminal and which will be punished. Generally speaking, crimes are defined by the actor's intention and the consequences of the act. Legislators are faced with the difficult task of determining at what point in the steps of committing a crime a person should be held accountable even though the actual crime was not completed. The legal systems of many countries have adopted either the subjective standard or an objective harmful consequence standard. Related to crimes of attempt are impossible act cases. A typical attempted murder case is where a defendant shoots and the bullets miss the intended victim.
