 So what if you don't commit any crimes, but you help someone else commit one? You're off the hook, right? Surely being helpful is in a crime. It's in the Boy Scout motto. Well, there are crimes that cover being just a little too helpful. You can be charged as an accessory, which is hilariously ironic if you're part of a gang that steals belts and handbags. There are two kinds of accessories. Those who help before or during the crime and those who help after the crime has already happened. Accessories who help before or during the crime are also usually called principles. So how do you become this kind of accessory? Well, first you need the right intent. You need to intend for a crime to be committed and also intend to assist in the commission of that crime. So, imagine that your friend is committing a burglary and you walk by and decide to help. Then you would be an accessory. Now, if you see your friend carrying a TV and decide to help and because that TV isn't his, you help him steal it without realizing, that wouldn't make you an accessory because you didn't mean for a burglary to be committed or to assist with one. You're just dumb. The second thing you need to be an accessory is to aid in the crime, either before or during. You don't actually have to commit it. Just aid the person who does commit it. You could buy the supplies or you could drive the getaway car or you could even just offer to assist providing encouragement to the person committing the crime even if they don't use your help. As a matter of fact, you can even be an accessory where the person committing the crime doesn't know you're helping or where your help isn't any help at all. It's a different less serious offense if you help someone after they've committed a crime. This is called being an accessory after the fact. The difference is that if you help someone commit a crime, you are guilty of that crime. If you help someone after they've committed a crime, it's a different crime that doesn't rank as high and won't involve its harsh of a punishment when you're caught. Some places have emerged this crime with the broader crime of obstructing justice. Basically, to be an accessory after the fact, you need to help someone who committed a felony, a category of more serious crimes. The difference is that the help comes after the crime has been completed. This usually means after the criminalists left the crime scene. So, hiding someone or lying to the police would both count. Another crime that involves people working together is a conspiracy. This is where two or more people agree, in advance, to commit a crime or help someone commit a crime. The conspirators have to take some step towards the crime aside from just talking about it. And they have to agree to commit a specific crime, not just agree to be criminals. In some places, you can even have a criminal conspiracy where one side of the agreement doesn't actually mean to do their end of the deal, like when a cop is setting up a criminal. Conspiracy is a big deal not so much for the crime itself, but because a conspirator is automatically liable for every other crime committed by any co-conspirators to accomplish the goal of the conspiracy. So, if you join a huge bank robbing gang to drive the getaway car, and this happens, you're going to jail for murder. So, conspiracy charges are an effective way to convict people for more crimes. And there you have it.