Strict Liability

Question 1

What is a strict liability crime?

Answer 1

Describes a crime that requires no mens rea. The act alone is in and of itself enough to convict on. Usually these crimes involve dangerous weapons or drugs and especially vulnerable victims.

Question 2

Does the MPC favor or disfavor the use of strict liability and how does it interpret it?

Answer 2

The MPC disfavors the use of strict liability, and unless it is specifically stated that the offense is a strict liability crime then it will not be interpreted as such.

Question 3

Hypo 3.4: Bad Dad
Ralph was supposed to drive his daughter to day care on his way to work. Obviously ver absent minded, he forgot to drop her off and left her in the car all day. The ay was very hot and the child suffocated to death. Can it be said that Ralph purpsely, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently caused her death?

Answer 3

Purposely- No
Knowingly- No, because he was absent minded.
Recklessly- No
Negligently- Possible.

Question 4

Hypo 3.5: A Minor Mistake
A criminal statute provides, “a person who lures a child into a motor vehicle without the consent, express or implied, of that child’s parent or guardian, unless the circumstances reasonably indicate that the child is in need of assistance, commits a misdemeanor of the first degree.”
Defendant, charged under the statute, argues that he is not guilty of this crime because he did not know that 17 year old M.N., who he invited into his car to drink then engage in oral sex, was only seventeen years old. Does he has a defense?

Answer 4

Majority view: There is a longstanding tradition that criminal liability is not imposed absent some level of culpability.
Here there is no evidence of a legislative directive to dispense with a mens rea requirement with regard to the age requirement. In the absence of a clear legislative intent to imply a strict liability requirement, it will not be strict liability.

Dissent: This court has found strict liability when a statute is a mens of protecting children, such as for statutory rape, based on the legislative desire to protect those who are unsophisticated to protect themselves.