In the criminal law, the defendant’s motive for breaking the law is usually irrelevant although, if the reason for acting was a form of justification, this may reduce the sentence. Thus, some degree of culpability already attaches to the defendant for what was done. In this situation, the defendant has actually done everything to constitute the actus reus of the crime and has the mens rea because he or she intended to do it in order to avoid some threatened or actual harm. Note that in criminal law, a duress defense is similar to a plea of guilty, admitting partial culpability, so it could possibly lead to an easy conviction of a criminal.ĭuress or coercion can also be raised in an allegation of rape or sexual assault to negate a defence of consent on the part of the person making the allegation.

The notion of duress must be distinguished both from undue influence in the civil law and from necessity which might be described as a form of duress by force of circumstances. Black’s Law Dictionary (6th ed.) defines duress as “any unlawful threat or coercion used… to induce another to act in a manner otherwise would not ”. Duress or coercion (as a term of jurisprudence) is a possible legal defense, one of four of the most important justification defenses, by which defendants argue that they should not be held liable because the actions that broke the law were only performed out of an immediate fear of injury.

Successful duress defense cases