An accusation involves imputing a fault or crime to someone.
Accusation is the act of accusing : pointing out a person as responsible for a certain fault . In the field of law , accusation means imputing a crime to an individual .
It can be said that the accusation - a term derived from the Latin word accusatĭo - is one of the necessary steps that must be taken in a judicial process in order to reach a conviction . The accusation against a subject must be made before the corresponding authority that, after the trial , will determine whether the accused is guilty or innocent. If, based on the evidence gathered, the authority determines that the person is guilty, it will apply the punishment specified by law (a financial penalty, imprisonment, etc.).
Under the magnifying glass of the justice system, the accusation is not an indivisible element, but is made up of several components; although each author can understand this structure with different nuances, among the key points are the following: the data that identifies the different parties; the description of the facts, which must meet a series of requirements, such as precision and conciseness; and the classification of the crime , essential to start the rest of the legal procedures.
The false accusation
On the other hand, there is the concept of false accusation , which is also known as false reporting and is a crime that consists of imputing the commission of a crime or misdemeanor to one or more persons before the competent authority, being aware of being untruthful . In other words, this occurs when we tell the police that someone has acted illegally despite knowing that this is not true.
Although it may seem like something occasional, the crime of false accusation is very common; in Spain , for example, more than 900 cases of this type were recorded in the first third of 2013 alone . The judicial authority that carries out the prosecution of this crime must issue a firm judicial resolution of archiving or dismissal; in other words, once it has assessed the complaint , the evidence that the complainant has presented and the statements of both parties, it must stop its action when it understands that there is not enough evidence to support the veracity of the facts.
An accusation is a formal step in a judicial process.
Other uses of the term
The accusation can also be understood as the request made by an individual or group of people to obtain a conviction of the accused, for which they provide evidence to prove that the accused is not innocent (that is, refuting the principle of presumption of innocence ). The group formed by those who accuse is also known as the accusation. For example: «The prosecution requested nine years in prison for the accused» , «Now the court must consider the prosecution's claim» .
In colloquial language, the idea of accusation is used to refer to the action that implies blaming someone for something : "I don't understand your accusation! I never said anything to Cristian" , "I already heard Dad's accusation, but I swear that I didn't take the money" , "I'm tired of accusations, I'm going to resign" .
While in the legal field an accusation is a perfectly normal procedure and, in fact, necessary for other complementary processes to come into operation, in everyday life it is not something cold and technical, but an action that can have emotional consequences. For example, when a person accuses someone in whom he has placed a lot of trust of having stolen his property, he takes a step that he may regret for the rest of his life if his accusation turns out to be unfounded, since the relationship may be broken forever because of it.