Parasitic accessory liability, also known as joint enterprise liability, is a legal doctrine that allows individuals who are involved in a criminal venture to be held criminally liable for the actions of their co-conspirators or associates, even if they did not personally carry out the criminal act.
In the context of criminal law, a joint enterprise refers to a situation where two or more individuals agree to commit a crime together.
Under the doctrine of parasitic accessory liability, each individual who participates in the joint enterprise can be held responsible for any criminal acts committed by any of the other participants, as long as those acts were within the scope of the original agreement or were reasonably foreseeable as a possible outcome of the joint enterprise.
You can learn more about this topic and relevant case law with our Criminal Law notes.