{"id":787,"date":"2012-05-05T12:41:18","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T16:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/?p=787"},"modified":"2012-07-21T10:29:19","modified_gmt":"2012-07-21T14:29:19","slug":"mens-rea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/mens-rea\/","title":{"rendered":"Mens Rea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A defendant must have a &#8220;guilty mind&#8221; or <a title=\"Mens rea, Actus reus, and Attendant Circumstances\" href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/mens-rea-actus-reus\/\"><em>mens rea<\/em><\/a> in order to be found guilty of a crime. Under the Common Law, the mens rea or the &#8220;guilty mind&#8221; was divided into four categories and the defendant&#8217;s <em>mens rea<\/em> must fall into one of these categories or else he cannot be guilty of an offense:<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0\u00a0 Intentional &#8211; the defendant must have intended the conduct <em>and<\/em> the result of his conduct<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Note: Transferred intent &#8211; if the defendant intended to kill A, and B jumps in front of him, the defendant&#8217;s intent to kill A transfers in his trial for the murder of B<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>2.\u00a0\u00a0 Knowledge &#8211; the defendant knew that the <em>result<\/em> was reasonably likely (focusing on the effect\/result)<\/p>\n<p>3.\u00a0\u00a0 Reckless &#8211;\u00a0 willful and wanton (based on a reasonable person)<\/p>\n<p>4.\u00a0\u00a0 Negligence &#8211; defendant did not exercise a standard of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in similar circumstances<\/p>\n<p>The four categories above can be divided amongst <a title=\"General Intent vs. Specific Intent\" href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/general-intent-vs-specific-intent\/\">specific intent crimes and general intent crimes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Specific intent usually includes intentional and knowledge based crimes. For a specific intent crime, the mens rea will typically be written into the statute (i.e. <em>intentionally<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>General intent usually includes reckless and negligence based crimes. All that is required is that the defendant intended the conduct as opposed to the conduct <em>and <\/em>result.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Modern Penal Code (MPC ) Section 2.02 tried to distinguish between the gray areas between the four categories by further defining <em>Purposely<\/em> in 2.02(2)(a), <em>Knowingly<\/em> in 2.02(2)(b), <em>Recklessly<\/em> in 2.02(2)(c), and <em>Negligently<\/em> in 2.02(2)(d). Here is the result of the changes:<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0\u00a0 Purposely &#8211; essentially grouped conduct and result; looked at conduct and result as an<em> either\/or<\/em> instead of <em>and<\/em><\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0\u00a0 Knowingly &#8211; &#8220;high probability;&#8221; the focus is now on the conduct<em> as well as<\/em> the result;<\/p>\n<p>3.\u00a0\u00a0 Reckless &#8211; &#8220;substantial and unjustifiable risk;&#8221; a conscious disregard that the result will occur (defendant does not know about the result); looks at the offense from the defendant&#8217;s (subjective) and reasonable person point of view<\/p>\n<p>4.\u00a0\u00a0 Negligence &#8211; &#8220;should be aware;&#8221; objective standard that looks for justifiability<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>More Helpful Notes: <a title=\"Specific Intent Crimes List\" href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/general-intent-vs-specific-intent\/\">Specific Intent Crimes List<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A defendant must have a &#8220;guilty mind&#8221; or mens rea in order to be found guilty of a crime. Under the Common Law, the mens rea or the &#8220;guilty mind&#8221; was divided into four categories and the defendant&#8217;s mens rea must fall into one of these categories or else he cannot be guilty of an &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/mens-rea\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Mens Rea&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,176],"tags":[87,161],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-law","category-key-concepts-criminal-law","tag-intent","tag-mens-rea"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mens Rea -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explanation of mens rea under common law and the Modern Penal Code. 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