Abstract:
Most of the time, people engage themselves in the commission of a single crime, and sometimes it is very
likely that they may commit more than one crime. Concurrent crimes as the name indicate the existence of
two or more unlawful acts resulting from different circumstances. It is a conduct of same person which
establishes the commissions of more than one offence arise from a single, successive or repeated act
before being finally convicted for any of them. Concurrent crimes by itself give rise to both theoretical
and practical difficulties. It is arguably the most complicated topic in criminal law. Despite the fact that,
laws dealing with the area of concurrent offences that are controversial, neither get more emphasis nor
extensive training in both law school and justice machinery organs or institutions on the issue. This
creates unreasonable, arbitrary, inconsistent and unpredictable practice in relation to instituting of a
charge and sentencing of such crime. In order to bring proportional punishment and to achieve the goal
of criminal law, lawyers and legal practitioners should be able to understand the fundamental differences
between a single criminal act and the concurrent one together with the methods of framing charge and
sentencing of concurrent crimes. This thesis, therefore, tries to clarify the concept of concurrent crimes
across different jurisdictions and in the Ethiopian legal system. It also assesses the legal and practical
discrepancy observed in the implementation of such crimes in Northern Showa Zone, Amhara Region. It
is conducted based on interviews, focused group discussion, legislative analysis, case analysis and
analysis of other relevant literature. The finding of the study shows the existing inconsistencies observed
in the instituting of charge and sentencing of concurrent crimes in the study area. Finally, the paper
contributes its own share for legal practitioners to have full-fledged knowledge and skill about
concurrent offences in general, and methods of framing charge and sentencing in particular.