attempt
n. (in criminal law) Any act that is more than merely preparatory to the intended commission of a crime; such an act is itself a crime. Section 1 (i) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 provides:- “If, with intent to commit an offence to which this section applies, a person does an act which is more than merely preparatory to the commission of the offence, he is guilty of attempting to commit the offence.” For example, shooting at someone but missing could be attempted murder, but merely buying a revolver would not. One may be guilty of attempting to commit a crime that proves impossible to commit (e.g. attempted theft from an empty handbag: see impossibility).

• child cruelty
• child destruction
• child employee
• child in care
• Child Maintenance Service
• child of the family
• child of unmarried parents
• Child Protection Conference
• child protection in divorce
• Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service
• children and young people’s plan
• children in care
• children in need
• children’s barred list
• Children’s Commissioner
• children’s guardian
• child safety order
• child subjected to physical abuse
• child support maintenance
• child tax credit
• child witness
• Chiltern Hundreds, stewardship of the
• chose
• Church of England
• CIF contract