Factors of Offence (Theravada)

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Revision as of 16:46, 23 July 2006

Many rules have specific factors of offence, which are enumerated in the Vibhanga. Five commonly found factors are:

• Object
• Perception
• Intention
• Effort (or action)
• Result

For some rules the Vibhanga enumerates all these factors as needing to be present for there to be an offence. For other rules it mentions only a few of these factors as being relevant, while for many less 'heavy' rules like pacittiyas and sekhiyas the Vibhanga does not mention specific factors. In this last case, the factors are frequently extrapolated from the actual rule in the commentaries.

The factors that are listed in the Vibhanga concerning a particular rule, must all be fulfilled in order to commit the full offense. If only a few of the factors are fulfilled, there might be a derived offence, for example a thullacaya or a dukkata.

Preliminary Steps

Sometimes derived offences occur when committing acts leading up to the full offence. They are committed in the pubbayoga, or preliminary steps. For example Parajika 2 has a derived offence of a dukkata for every step taken when walking towards the object one plans to steal. Moving the object partially from its base is a thullaccaya.

In almost all cases (all cases??) once the factors have been completed for the full offence the previous derived offences are nullified. Likewise, once a thullaccaya derived offence has been committed, any previous dukkata offences are removed.

See also

• Derived Offence