Lessons · Law foundations · act and mental state
A crime is an act plus a state of mind
Almost every offence has two parts: the conduct the rule forbids, and the state of mind the rule requires at the time of that conduct, known by the old names actus reus and mens rea.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Reading a charge sheet is reading a list of parts. A summary that records what happened and says nothing about what the person knew or intended has left out half of what the state has to prove, and it is usually the half that is fought over.
How to think about it
Split the charge in two on the page: what was done down one side, what was in the mind down the other, and then check that they meet at the same moment.
Worked example
The conduct: what the rule says must have been done.Sometimes a failure to act, where the rule required acting.
The state of mind: what the rule says must have been in the head at that moment.Intending it, knowing it, being reckless about it, or being careless: different offences require different ones.
They have to meet in time.Doing it by accident on Monday and being glad about it on Tuesday is not the same as doing it on purpose.
Plus anything else the charge names: a result, a circumstance, a value.Read the charge to the end. The extra words are elements too.
Your turn
Write the old term, still used in charge sheets, for the state of mind an offence requires.
The state of mind an offence requires:
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Assuming every offence needs a guilty mind. Some are written so that doing the act is enough, and the only way to know is to read the words of the offence rather than to remember a rule of thumb.