Mens rea Flashcards
what is mens rea
it is the mental element of an offence
what are the 2 terms to indicate the level of mens rea required for a person to be guilty of an offence
-intention
-recklessness
What are the various Mens Rea?
-Although each offense has its own mens rea, since inquiring the intentions of the defendant is important, some offenses do not have mens rea.
- these are “strict liabilitiy”
- strict liability are regulatory offenses, such as food and drug regulations, financial regulations, etc.
What is Crimes of Intention
These are crimes that require the defendant to have a deliberate intent when committing the Actus Reus.
give example of crime intention
-Crime of murder is usually a crime of intention; in order to prove this though the prosecution must prove that the defendant had a specific intent to kill the victim.
- In the case of theft, if someone were to borrow something without permission, but with the intention of giving it back, then although that fulfills Actus Reus – since the outcome is that something was stolen – it does not fulfill Mens Rea since their intention is not bad
give a case example of a direct intention
R V MOHAN ( 1975)
whereby the defendant refused to stop when a policemen signallled for him to stop.instead he drove towrds the officer
this showed the direct intention to scare or injurethe policeman
What is the problem of Crimes of Intention
-can be hard for prosecutors to prove
-can create wrongful convictions because of difficulty of proving
-additionally, sometimes, the defendant did not intend to cause harm, but they acted recklessly and ignored the risk, even though the risk was very obvious and known. this is called foresight of consequence.
give a case example of an oblique intention
-where the defendants main aim was not the prohibited consequences
R V WOOLLIN 1998
the defendant threw his baby towards his pram which hit against the wall
the baby died
the court ruled that if a consequence is virtually certain and the defendant realizes this , it can be used as evidence of intention
What are Crimes of Recklessness?
-Crimes that require conscious unjustifiable risk taking
-Whereby the defendant actually knows of the risk in a particular action but still takes the risk and performs the action.
give a case example of recklessness
R v Cunningham (1957)
whereby The defendant’s actions caused gas to seep into the house next door which affected the woman in it, but when tried in court the defendant argued he had no idea that gas would seep into the woman’s home and so as a result he was not guilty
What is transferred malice?
-Whereby you intended to commit a similar offense on one person, but ended up committing the crime on another person instead.
- However, if your offense is not similar to your intended offense, then you may not be guilty. for example, if you try to hit a person, but instead to rock breaks a window, then since those are completely different types of offenses, you might be fine.
give a case example of transferred malice
Latimer 1886, whereby a defendant tried to hit a man with a belt, but the belt also ended up hitting a woman. The defendant was guilty of an assault against woman, even though he did not mean to hit here.
Why is Actus Reus and Mens Rea required at the same time?
-In order for an offense to take place, both the actus reus and the mens rea must be present. -this is also known as the “contemporaneity rule”
give another case exanple of transferred malice which the defendant is not found liable or guilty
R V PEMBLITON 1874
the intention to hit people with a stone could not be transferred to the window
as there was a different mens rea for the two offences
give an example of how actus reus and mens rea are required at the same time
-If one day you decide to break someone’s property, but then decide not to later on, then although you met the “mens rea” since you had the initial intention, you do not meet “actus reus” since you did not cause the outcome of breaking someone’s property. -However, if you later break the property by mistake, you may still be fine since at that point although you met “actus reus” you no longer met “mens rea” since it was an accident.
-It is important to note though that if you don’t meet one of the qualifications at first, but then later meet both, you will be convicted.
- An example of this is Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commissioner, whereby the defendant parked the car on the police’s foot by accident, but then once told by the police of the accident, he ignored the risk. So, although at first he didn’t qualify for men’s rea, he later did, when he ignored the comment.
