Reference:
- Professional Nursing Practice, Ethics, and Jurisprudence, 1st Edition, ISBN 978-971-98-1932-5, by Glenn Reyes Luansing (Ch. 4, pp. 137–176)
- Felony: act or omission punishable by law.
- Offense: crimes punishable by special laws (Dangerous Drugs Act, Law on Anti-Violence on Women and Children)
- Misdemeanor: minor infraction of the law; less severe punishment than a felony.
- Tort: act or omission that gives rise to injury (invasion of right) or harm (causation of suffering) to another, and amounts to a civil wrong for which courts impose liability.
Classifications of Felonies
According to Manner of Commission
- Dolo (Deceit): the act was performed with deliberate intent
- Culpa (Fault): the act resulted from imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight, or lack of skill.
According to Stages of Execution
- Consummated: all aspects of the crime were performed and was successful.
- Frustrated: all aspects of the crime were performed and was unsuccessful.
- Attempted: the felony began but all acts of execution were not performed.
According to the Degree of Participation
- Principal: those directly involved with the performance of the crime.
- Accomplice: those involved with the crime but are not vital to its commission.
- Accessory: those involved with the crime after the fact, such as destroying evidence or paying for stolen goods.
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liabilities
- Justifying Circumstances: justification of the act; release of any criminal liability.
- Self-defense or defense of others
- Damages incurred by an attempt to escape harm
- Damages incurred while exercising lawful duty or rights, etc.
- Exempting Circumstances: the release of punishment, despite criminal liability.
- Imbeciles/insane individuals
- Minors (<9 years old)
- Accidents with no elements of negligence, etc.
- Mitigating Circumstances: the reduction of punishment for criminal liability.
- Offenders who had no intention to commit a so grave a wrong as that committed, e.g., battery that resulted in death
- Voluntary surrender
- Deaf and dumb, blind, or otherwise suffering, etc.
- Aggravating Circumstances: conditions which cause an increase in penalties imposable.
- Offenders that take advantage of positions of power to perform crime
- Abuse of confidence or obvious ungratefulness
- Crimes performed during calamity or misfortune, etc.
- Alternative Circumstances: conditions which may be aggravating or mitigating.
- Intoxication of the offender may be considered a mitigating circumstance, but otherwise aggravating if intoxication is habitual or intentional.
Criminal Liabilities
- Negligence: the failure to employ the expected prudence and competence in the provision of care to a client, either through incompetent commission of an act or through failure to perform one’s duty.
- There must be four elements to constitute negligence: (a) duty, (b) breach of duty, (c) resulting in injury, harm, or death, and (d) causal relations between the breach of duty and resulting harm.
- Malpractice: a type of negligence that occurs when a standard of care expected causes harm. These are actions that cause harm (malpractice), rather than inactions that cause harm (just negligence).
- Assault: the threat of bodily harm that reasonably causes fear of harm in the victim.
- Battery: the actual painful, harmful, violent, or offensive physical impact on another person.
- Libel: a written defamatory statement or representation that injures a person’s reputation or exposes them to public contempt.
- Slander: oral defamation that attempts to injure a person’s reputation or expose them to public contempt.
- Fraud: the use of deceit, a trick, or some dishonest means to deprive another of his/her money, property, or a legal right.
- Falsification: altering, changing, modifying, passing or possessing of a document for an unlawful purpose.
- False medical certificates, false certificates of merits or service, etc.
- Using false certificates
- Forgery: a type of falsification that refers to making a false document or altering a genuine one with the intent to defraud.
- Impersonation: presenting oneself as a nurse without the professional and legal requirements to do so.
- Breaches of Confidentiality: the improper disclosure of privileged information of a client.
- Breaches of Anonymity: the improper disclosure of the identity of a client.
- Invasion of Privacy: intrusion into an individual’s personal life or affairs, either through physical intrusion, surveillance, or misuse of personal information (e.g., address on the patient chart).
- Parricide: any person who shall kill his father, mother, or child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, or any of his ascendants, or descendants, or his spouse.
- Murder: the act of killing another with evident premeditation or cruelty.
- Homicide: the act of killing another without the attendance of any circumstances related to murder.
- Infanticide: the act of killing a child less than three days of age.
- Intentional Abortion
- Unintentional Abortion: abortion caused by violence or other means but unintentionally.
- Illegal Detention: the detainment of another in any manner that deprive him of his liberty.
- False Imprisonment: a specific type of detention which refers to the intentional and unlawful restraint of a person’s movement without legal justification.
- Simulation of Births: child substitution, concealment/abandonment of a legitimate child.