Criminal offence consists of two main elements: actus reus and mens rea. Actus reus is a prohibited conduct (Molan & Douglas, 2008). For example, burning the house or shooting someone is an actus reus element (Siegel, 2009). This element represents external constituents of criminal offense. There are two main features of actus reus: illegality of action (or omission) and voluntary character of action (Siegel, 2009). The example of illegal omission in some jurisdiction is failure of a driver, witnessing an accident, to stop and to provide help for parties involved (Siegel, 2009). Mens rea is usually described as a fault element. Mens rea may include such elements as motive, intention, state of mind, recklessness and so on (Molan & Douglas, 2008). In other words, mens rea reflects offender’s personal attitude toward the violation he or she committed. Traditionally, in order to establish responsibility for a criminal offence, prosecutors should show that there was coincidence of actus reas and mens rea elements. In simple terms, it is necessary to establish that a particular prohibited act or omission (actus reas) was accompanied by mens rea element. For instance, in order to establish that the act of murder leads to criminal responsibility, one should to illustrate that such act was accompanied with intention, or recklessness (mens rea). Mens rea is usually more difficult to prove in a trial by the reason of its subjectivity. Therefore, one may say that actus reus and mens rea elements are mutually connected. Indeed, there is no crime if there are no both elements. For instance, there is no crime, where there is an illegal action, but no intention, or recklessness. At the same time, even if there is a criminal intent (mens rea) but no criminal action, there is no crime.
The main difference between actus reus and mens rea is that they characterize different aspects of crime. Actus reus describes an objective aspect of crime – act or omission. Mens rea characterizes a subjective aspect of crime – an offender’s attitude towards illegal act he or she committed.
References:
Molan, M., & Douglas, G. (2008). Criminal law 2008 and 2009. New York: Oxford University Press
Siegel, L. (2009). Introduction to Criminal Justice. 12th. Cengage Learning
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ACTUS REUS AND MENS …