Who are Principals, Accomplices and Accessories of the Crime?
image grabbed from www.thehindu.com The words PRINCIPALS, ACCOMPLICES and ACCESSORIES of the crime/s may no longer be uncommon to most of us. We may have heard and read these terms in the newspapers, television and nowadays in the internet. To differentiate the terms from each other, this post is trying to provide their definitions. Article 17 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines provides who are considered as principals. Thus: "The following are considered principals: 1. Those who take a direct part in the execution of the act; 2. Those who directly force or induce others to commit it; 3. Those who cooperate in the commission of the offense by another act without which it would not have been accomplished." Based on the aforementioned, there three types of principals of the crime. Those are principal by direct participation, principal by inducement and principal by cooperation. Whether he may participate directly, induce or coopera...