Portal:Law/Article/Week 32 2006
The mens rea is the Latin term for "guilty mind" used in the criminal law. The standard common law test of criminal liability is usually expressed in the Latin phrase, actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, which means that "the act will not make a person guilty unless the mind is also guilty". Thus, in jurisdictions with due process, there must be an actus reus accompanied by some level of mens rea to constitute the crime with which the defendant is charged (see the technical requirement of concurrence). The exception is strict liability crimes (in the civil law, it is not usually necessary to prove a subjective mental element to establish liability, say for breach of contract or a tort, although if intentionally committed, this may increase the measure of damages payable to compensate the Plaintiff).
There are three general classes of mens rea (the words used may vary from one state to another and from one definition to another) but the substance is:
- intention;
- recklessness sometimes termed willful blindness which may have a different interpretation in the United States; or
- criminal negligence.