1. The act or an instance of provoking, urging on, or stirring up.
2. Criminal law. The act of persuading another person to commit a crime; SOLICITATION(2). [Cases: Criminal Law 45. C.J.S. Criminal Law §§ 115, 124–126.] — inciteful, adj.
“An inciter is one who counsels, commands or advises the commission of a crime. It will be observed that this definition is much the same as that of an accessory before the fact. What, then, is the difference between the two? It is that in incitement the crime has not (or has not necessarily) been committed, whereas a party cannot be an accessory in crime unless the crime has been committed. An accessory before the fact is party to consummated mischief; an inciter is guilty only of an inchoate crime.” Glanville Williams, Criminal Law 612 (2d ed. 1961).
“Emphasis upon the theory of one offense with guilt attaching to several is quite appropriate because it is still part of the groundwork of our legal philosophy, so far as perpetrators, abettors and inciters are concerned, despite the fact that some of the statutes require lipservice to the notion of a separate substantive offense, in the effort to avoid certain procedural difficulties. It explains how one may be guilty of a crime he could not perpetrate, by having caused or procured it as a result of his abetment or incitement.” Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 732–33 (3d ed. 1982).
