Mens rea
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Mens rea is the mental state of a criminal defendant. In Latin it means "guilty mind". Usually there are four levels of mens rea in crimes, in descending order of culpability:
- intent
- knowledge
- recklessness
- negligence
The trend in trials and in legislation has been to weaken the requirement of proof of mens rea. A utilitarian view of justice does not depend on mens rea, while a moral view of justice does. Mens rea usually combined with actus reus is used to produce criminal liability.
William Blackstone famously observed, “in order to have a crime, there must be a vicious will.”[1] However, in the modern regulatory state there are increasing attempts, particularly at the federal level, to create crimes that do not require proof of mens rea.
References
- ↑ William Blackstone, Commentaries 21.