What offense is committed when a person, with specific intent, performs an act that goes beyond mere preparation?

The offense committed when a person, with specific intent, performs an act that goes beyond mere preparation is known as criminal attempt. This legal concept highlights that an individual has moved past the planning or preparatory stages of committing a crime and has taken substantial steps toward its actual commission.

In criminal law, a "specific intent" means that the person has a clear goal or purpose to achieve a particular criminal outcome. The requirement for the act to go beyond mere preparation ensures that the individual has engaged in behavior that demonstrates they are actively trying to commit the crime, rather than simply thinking about it. The proof of intention combined with overt actions indicative of pursuing the crime is what characterizes a criminal attempt.

This is distinct from other offenses such as criminal conspiracy, which involves an agreement between two or more people to commit an unlawful act but doesn’t always involve the overt act necessary for an attempt. Criminal negligence refers to a failure to act that results in harm, which does not entail specific intent or any overt act towards committing a crime. Criminal solicitation involves encouraging or persuading another person to engage in criminal behavior, but this does not necessarily reflect the individual's own intent to complete the crime. Thus, criminal attempt effectively encapsulates the situation where a person is engaged in a