Under the common law, conspiracy is usually described as an agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act or to accomplish a lawful end by unlawful means. This definition is delusively simple, however, for each of its terms has been the object of extended judicial exposition. Criminal conspiracy is perhaps the most amorphous area in the Anglo-American law of crimes. In some jurisdictions, for example, the “unlawful” end of the conspiracy need not be one that would be criminal if accomplished by a single individual, but courts have not always agreed as to what constitutes an “unlawful” objective for these purposes. Statutory law in some American states, following the lead of the Model Penal Code, have limited conspiracy offense to the furtherance of criminal objectives. The European codes have no conception of conspiracy as broad as that found in the Anglo-American legal system. In some of the continental European countries, such as France or Germany, punishment of crimes may be enhanced when the offense was committed by two or more persons acting in concert.

In most countries the punishment of agreements to commit offenses, irrespective of whether the criminal purpose was attempted or executed, is largely confined to political offenses against the state. Some extension of the conspiracy idea to other areas has occurred, however. Thus, in the Italian code of 1930, association for the purpose of committing more than one crime was made criminal. None of these continental European provisions, however, has the generality of the original Anglo-American concept. None, for example, condemns agreements to achieve objectives not otherwise criminal.

Attempt

In Anglo-American law there is a class of offenses known as inchoate, or preliminary, crimes because guilt attaches even though the criminal purpose of the parties may not have been achieved. Thus, the offense of incitement or solicitation consists of urging or requesting another to commit a crime. Certain specified types of solicitation may be criminal, such as solicitation of a bribe, solicitation for immoral purposes, or incitement of members of the armed forces to mutiny. The Model Penal Code also treats conspiracy as an inchoate crime, as do a number of U.S. states. Other states and federal law treat conspiracy as a separate principal offense, sometimes punishing it more severely than the crime that is the object of the conspiracy. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court in Clune et al. v. U.S. (1895) affirmed a sentence of two years’ imprisonment for conviction of conspiracy to obstruct the passage of the mails, although the maximum sentence for the crime of obstructing the mails itself would have been a fine only, not to exceed $100.

The most important category of inchoate offenses is attempt, which consists of any conduct intended to accomplish a criminal result that fails of consummation but goes beyond acts of preparation to a point dangerously close to completion of the intended harm. The line between acts of mere preparation and attempt is difficult to draw in many cases. In continental European and some Anglo-American legal systems, attempt may also consist of conduct that would be criminal if the circumstances were as the actor believed them to be. A defense of “impossibility” is recognized only if the mistake is shown to be absolutely unreasonable. Unlike the law of some continental European countries, no defense has traditionally been granted to an offender who voluntarily desists from committing the intended harm after that person’s conduct has reached a point beyond mere preparation. The Model Penal Code and several American state codes, however, provide for an affirmative defense if it can be shown that the actor “abandoned his effort to commit the crime or otherwise prevented its commission, under circumstances manifesting a complete and voluntary renunciation of his criminal purpose.” See also criminology.