Misprision of treason is an offense, inherited from English common law and found in many common law jurisdictions, committed by a person who knows that an act of treason is being planned or has been committed and deliberately fails to report it to the proper authorities. It is distinct from treason itself, punishing concealment and silence rather than active participation in the treasonous act.
Facts
Classification CodeMisprision of treason is inherited from English common law and survives as a distinct, lesser offense from treason itself in many common law jurisdictions. 1 Typical PenaltyPenalties vary sharply by jurisdiction: New Zealand caps the offense at seven years imprisonment, well below the life imprisonment maximum set in the United Kingdom and Australia. 1 Elements of OffenseCanada frames the offense as knowing that a person is about to commit treason and failing, with all reasonable dispatch, to inform a justice of the peace or other peace officer, or to make other reasonable efforts to prevent it. 1 Notable ExampleThe 1662 English case R v. Tonge is a documented precedent on the boundary between treason and mere misprision: a person who merely hears others discuss a treasonous design and says or does nothing was held to have committed treason itself, which is more than bare concealment. 1 Jurisdiction VariationIn the United States the offense is federal, requiring that the accused have concealed knowledge of treason without informing the President, a federal judge, a state governor, or a state judge, under 18 U.S.C. section 2382. 1 Classification
Offense GradeSerious or Indictable Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Misprision of Treason (Wikipedia)
Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misprision_of_treason, lead paragraph
It is committed by someone who knows a treason is being or is about to be committed but does not report it to a proper authority.
Lead paragraph
Misprision of treason is an offence found in many common law jurisdictions around the world, having been inherited from English law.
Canada subsection, section 50(1)(b)
knowing that a person is about to commit high treason or treason [he] does not, with all reasonable dispatch, inform a justice of the peace or other peace officer thereof or make other reasonable efforts to prevent that person from committing high treason or treason.
United States subsection
misprision of treason is a federal offense, committed where someone who has knowledge of the commission of any treason against the United States, conceals such knowledge and does not inform the President, a federal judge, a State governor, or a State judge
Difference from treason subsection, R v. Tonge (1662)
Where a person knowing of the design meets with the others and hears them discourse of their traitorous designs and says or acts nothing; this is high treason in that party, for it is more than a bare concealment, which is misprision.
New Zealand subsection
A person guilty of this offence is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years.
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