Editing Inchoate offense (section)

{{Short description|Crime of preparing for another crime}}
{{Criminal law}}

An '''inchoate offense''', '''preliminary crime''', '''inchoate crime''' or '''incomplete crime''' is a [[crime]] of preparing for or seeking to commit another crime. The most common example of an inchoate offense is "[[attempt]]". "Inchoate offense" has been defined as the following: "Conduct deemed criminal without actual harm being done, provided that the harm that would have occurred is one the law tries to prevent."<ref>{{cite book|title=Criminal Justice in Action: The Core|author=Larry K. Gaines, Roger LeRoy Miller|year=2006|publisher=Thomson-Wadsworth Publishing}}</ref><ref name=Infra>See lists and chapters of texts at McCord and McCord, ''Infra,'' pp. 185-213, and Schmalleger, ''Infra'', pp. 105-161, 404.</ref>