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Mens Rea
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Lecture notes on mens rea
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Criminal Law – Men's Rea – introduction and practical contextMen's rea = the ‘guilty mind’ to a crime
- Focuses on the internal elements of an offense rather than the external
factors (AR)
- Focuses on the ‘fault’ of the defendant
Criminal system – the police – police are investigators – given specific powers – can
use force to impose arrest at their own discretion – police use surveillance
techniques in order to investigate crimes – police also have informants
Crown prosecution service (CPS) - acts on behalf of the crown (not the victim) - have
a code of practice which they must follow – they also have a degree of discretion
they can decide not to prosecute someone if there is not enough evidence or if it
isn't in the public interest - just because someone is arrested does not mean they
will be charged, CPS may throw out the case by NFD or give a caution
The Anatomy of Men's Rea
- Can be subjective or objective
Subjective men's rea = looking at defendant's actual state of mind, what was the D
personal awareness at the time of committing the offense, an example of this is
recklessness
Objective = no need to identify a particular state of mind for the D – concept of
reasonableness, what would a reasonable person do in those circumstances, an
example of this is gross negligence
Levels of culpability – types of men's rea
- Intention
- Recklessness
- Negligence
- Strict liability
MR is usually specified in the definition of an offence – they have specific men’s
rea’s
- For each element of AR there may be a different MR
- Different forms of MR
Intention
Direct intention
- no statutory definition -
- Mohan (1976) defined direct intention “a decision to bring about, insofar as
it lies within accused power (a particular consequence), no matter whether
the accused desired that consequence of his act of not”
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