Oregon Legal Research Blog
Do you ever notice that new words come to one’s attention in waves?
I’ve run across this word several times in the past few weeks – and it’s not one to trip off the tongue, so to speak, with any regularity, although maybe it should: misprision
Wikipedia entry: “Misprision (from Old French: mesprendre, modern French: se méprendre, “to misunderstand”) is a term of English law used to describe certain kinds of offence. Writers on criminal law usually divide misprision into two kinds, negative or positive….”
Search online for more information: define misprision (and for even more criminal law nomenclature, search the words: criminal law glossary)
You won’t find the word “misprision” in the current Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS), but you might find it or the equivalent offense when you perform some thorough legal research of Oregon cases and statutes. (You will need a law library, a good legal research database or other legal research finding tools and perhaps a law librarian to show you how to research legal words and concepts.)
You will find the offense of “misprision” in the U.S. Code, 18 USC 4.