Encourage Law and Legal Definition
Under criminal law, the term encourage means to instigate, or to incite to action. The term is used to describe the actions of abettors in a crime. The term also means:
- to give courage to,
- to inspirit,
- to embolden,
- to raise confidence, or to make confident,
- to help,
- to forward, and
- to advise
Following the decision in the case Robinson v. United States, 262 F.2d 645, 649 (9th Cir. Cal. 1959), an example for the usage of the term encourage is “A person is not an accessory before the fact, unless there is some sort of active proceeding on his part; he must incite, or procure, or encourage the criminal act, or assist or enable it to be done, or engage or counsel, or command the principal to do it.”
