Explain abetment and its forms.

A completed crime is the last step of a sequence the criminal law dissects into four stages — and the dissection is not academic: liability attaches at different stages for different crimes, and the boundaries define the oldest defences of criminal law (mere intention and preparation are, as a rule, lawful).Stage 1 — Intention (mens only): the formation of the criminal purpose in the mind. The rule:not punishable — cogitationis poenam nemo patitur (no one suffers punishment for mere thought). Law punishes conduct, not contemplation; the privacy of the mind is the outer wall of liberty. Exceptions where the intention is manifested into punishable expression appear in the inchoate offences below (conspiracy's agreement; incitement's communication) — but the uncommunicated intention, however wicked, is outside criminal law.Stage 2 — Preparation: acts designed to facilitate the intended crime — buying the poison, casing the bank, sharpening the khukuri, arranging the get-away. The general rule: notpunishable — preparation does not yet harm, and everyday conduct (buying rope) is too ambiguous to criminalize. The exceptions (memorize the list): where the preparation itself is dangerous or its proximity convincing, statutes directly criminalize it — possession-type offences (weapons, counterfeit materials, drugs in quantity), preparatory conspiracy in specific statutes, the Muluki Criminal Code's own instances of punishably-early conduct (preparations against state security — the treason/espionage class where…