This is sometimes true, though there are more relevant examples, such as multiple counts of the same crime. There's a concept in American criminal law of lesse

This is sometimes true, though there are more relevant examples, such as multiple counts of the same crime. There's a concept in American criminal law of lesser included offenses (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_included_offense https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_included_offense). To simplify, a lesser included offense contains the same, but fewer, elements as the greater. (Murder might necessarily involve a battery, therefore battery is a lesser included offense of murder.) When charged with the more serious crime which includes a less serious crime, you would not be charged with each and every lesser included offense, but rather they merge together into a single charge. This has another implication as well: if the jury decides that the prosecution has proved the elements of a lesser included offense but not the charged offense, you could be found guilty of the lesser included offense, even though that lesser offense was only implicitly charged. In your example, the elements of breaking and entering and theft may not line up so simply: if each of them contains an element the other does not, (and B&E and theft do not line up) they could indeed be charged separately, because the law says that that element should also be punishable. Attempted ____ is a lesser included offense of whatever crime the person was attempting, but conspiracy is not, because we decided as a society to punish more strongly planned criminality.