Understanding Actus Reus and Mens Rea

This essay explores the concepts of Actus Reus and Mens Rea in criminal law, analyzing their elements, forms, and the requirement of contemporaneity. It provides a comprehensive understanding of these key legal principles.

Understanding-Actus-Reus-
and-Mens-Rea

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Discussing the Actus-Reus of a specific crime................................................................1
1.2 Analysing the necessary pre-requisites of Actus-Reus....................................................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Analysing the forms of mens rea......................................................................................3
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Analysing the various forms of intent..............................................................................4
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................5
4.1 Requirements of contemporaneity for Actus-Reus and Mens-Rea.................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Crime is a term which denoted as “wrongful activity” and shows the negative intention of
specific person. Basically, an individual needs to either falls under Mens-Rea or Actus-Reus for
doing any criminal activities. In fact, these two words are supporting in determining the nature of
crime. Therefore, main objectives of this assignment is to highlight the pre-requisite elements of
Mens-Rea or Actus-Reus in order to understand the actual procedure of committing any crime.
Along with this, throwing some lights on intent as well as outlining its various types for
understanding the reason of doing any specific activity. At last, it represents the requirements of
contemporaneity for Mens-Rea or Actus-Reus.
LO 1
1.1 Discussing the Actus-Reus of a specific crime
Actus-Reus is a criminal act that is specifically considered in two different parts of
physical act. In simple words, it is all about the action which is done by a person without having
intention to harm others as it just happen. Actus-Reus is meant for a guilty act that considers an
undisguised act in encouragement of crime activities. It includes some activities when criminal
actions are considered as driven but activities are participating while individual is emerge a
hypnotic enamour. This activity is distinguished from Mens-Rea because in criminal squad, an
individual can get involved with two different mind sets as intentionally to harm people or in
other hand doing things wrongfully as have guilt for that. Actus-Reus is denoted as a term of
guilty in which things can happen without any intention or glad to do that. It must also be proved
that the accused party is liable for the deed that is prohibited by criminal law. The intent of these
Reus are used to describe a person's state of mind that can create a strict liability for crime. In
this act, an individual are not thinking to take wrong actions but in some situation, illegitimate
activities happen that can make them guilty towards it.
According to T.H. Jones & M.G.A. Christie in Actus-Reus, different things are seen in
three ways that can be defined as omission, overt act and state of affairs. Hence, overt act is a
moment of body part which evokes to commit some criminal activities. These kinds of situations
are not created intentionally but can affect negatively in crime formation. Omission is also a part
of Actus-Reus that is considered as a legal term in which an individual has authority but they get
failed to fulfil their legal obligation properly. As example a police officer know that criminal
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activities can being pledged but they used to fail in taking any legal action. As a result, police
officer is becoming liable for crime or wrongful activity as he/she get failed in accomplishing
assigned job role. Lastly, Actus-Reus is determined in a situation when a number of illegal
offences are defined while certain state of affairs are exist for them.
1.2 Analysing the necessary pre-requisites of Actus-Reus
Actus-Reus is defined as an element of criminal act in which something is going to
incurred without having the intention of doing. Basically, in this situation particular person is
physically doing unconventional things while their state of mind is not in the favour of such
actions. Thus, some of the elements which shows the actual meaning of Actus-Reus as well as
aids in identifying the state of particular situation is discussed as follows-
Positive acts - Actus-Reus is a different term from Men-Rea because in this, things are
encountered intentionally or with a specific state of mind. After doing such unlawful spectrum,
an individual feels guilty (Geary, 2012). Actus-Reus is a positive act in which things happen
without any wrongful intention whereas only person feels that the thing happened is totally
wrong and not acceptable by legitimate bodies. For example; doctor is liable to protect the life of
patient but sometime they failed in accomplishing his/her duty. As a result, he/she feel that
things was gone on a wrong track which is not right as per the legal terms and conditions and
feel guilty. Thus, this situation shows the positivity acts of Actus-Reus because person is not
doing things intentionally and even don't want to harm other person. In this act, some criminal
activities are obtained due to some specific factors which is seen as criminal actions.
Omissions – According to this element, an individual is liable to do certain activities
such as lawyer is responsible to defend his/her client but if he/she gets failed in doing that act
then this situation is known as omission of Actus-Reus. In this, liability rises when the law
imposes a legal duty and defendant is in breach of that. Basically, main advantage of this
Omission is that obligation will be imposed particularly when defendant is under duty of legal
act. For example; in the case of Omission, any person whomsoever is legally ordered to protect
the society from crimes then they need to do that. As a result that particular individual is getting
liable for the result either it is in positive manner or negative.
Voluntary acts – According to this element, it has been assessed that if a person is doing
any random action or natural reply then it shows the act of voluntary. Basically, this action of
Actus-Reus comes naturally such as; blinking of eye if someone is going to slap.
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Causation – It determines a causal relationship between the meaning of conducts and
effective results. These circumstances arises when an individual are mentally influenced by
certain issues and commit the element of guilty.
LO 2
2.1 Analysing the forms of Mens-Rea
Mens-Rea is a state of mind of an individual in which they are truly guilty for crime
because they are completely involved in an illegal activity. These are the intentional offences to
encourage a person to commit a crime and it is a necessary action of any illegal activity. In
Mens-Rea, act is not measured as an action of an individual that can be held as morally
responsible for inaction unless their mind is guilty (Martin and Storey, 2015). Mens-Rea is a
state of mind of a person when he is aware about the wrong act and after knowing all facts,
commit crime intentionally. Mens-Rea can be classified in different forms that are briefly
described as below -
Intention – This refers to explicit and a tendency to commit a crime or illegal act. For an
illustration, there are various citizens who know about the laws but still, they assault others due
to the intentional mind. As they have made up their mind to harm people through their actions.
This kind of the intentional acts results in serious crime and they are not bothered to commit the
offence and for that act they can be sentenced.
Knowledge – As per this terminology of Mens-Rea, specific individual is fully aware
about the consequences which is going to accomplished by him either her. But still getting
engaged in committing that wrongful acts then it is said to be a state of knowledge. For instance:
if a person continuously harming other person by knowing the outcomes then it shows that
he/she is having prime objective to hurt other one after getting aware about the facts. Hence, it
has been understood that, knowledge in a Mens-Rea highlight situations where person is
willingly involved in a criminal activity because he/she is having an intention of hurting other
one (Nicolson, 2013).
Recklessness – This term is defined as a state of mind where specific individual
intentionally and inexcusably perform specific action whereas consciously dis-regardless of
uncertainty flowing from that action. For an illustration, according to the statutory law, there is
rule that drink and drive is resulted into major accident due to which it is prohibited under UK
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law as well as charge fine around £100 in such cases. On contrary to this, half of the population
drink and then drive that can be a cause of accident and due to that, someone can get injury or
even reach to death bed.
LO 3
3.1 Analysing the various forms of intent
Intent is all about intention of specific person towards certain subject. In legal term, this
word denoted as knowledge of wrongdoing in order to harm someone. Literal sense of this
statement means “stretching of person mind as well as willingness towards specific subject”.
However, every individual have their own opinion and viewpoints which shows their aims and
objectives. Along with this, intention of a person shows his/her personality in front of the
society. As a result, aids in judging that individual either in positive sense or negative one
because every person have their own willingness towards specific object (Ong, 2013). Basically,
intent is classified into various parts which is discussed as follows-
Specific – According to this element of intent, it has been assessed that in context with
Actus-Reus and Men-Rea every individual having their specific intention. For example; few
criminals are wish to do murder for claiming something or personal reason. On the other hand,
some members are just want to stole specific goods either in monetary term or non-monetary.
Basic- Some of the major things which falls under this intent are; kidnapping, false
imprisonment, assault and so on. It means, basic intention is requisite for creating the situation of
Actus-Reus and Mens-Rea.
Direct- It means when a person is having their direct intention by assuming the
consequences of specific act. Thus, result of specific activity is already forecasted by a person
whomsoever is having direct intention towards certain situation. For example; elder brother is
going to kill his younger brother by having direct intent of acquiring whole property after his
brother death.
Oblique- This situation occurs due to natural outcomes of any voluntarily act is falls
under this category. It means, this intent is not having any aim and objective because it is based
on instant situations.
Hence, all the above shows the various types of intent in context with Actus-Reus and
Mens-Rea because criminal activities is full of complexity and confusion.
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LO 4
4.1 Requirements of contemporaneity for Actus-Reus and Mens-Rea
Criminal activity is all about doing things in wrongful way either by harming others with
intention or without it. However, crime is affecting an individual life as well as whole society in
negative manner. Along with this, it also influence the coming generation as few children's get
encouraged towards wrongful path which is dangerous for their future. Basically, Actus-Reus
and Mens-Rea are two different terms that aids in identifying the perception of specific person.
But sometime, these terms incurred at simultaneous as well as requisite to occur for committing
any criminal activity (Robinson, 2017). For example; in fantasy world like Films; numerous of
people are engaged in things which directly break the law but further they realise that they might
be harming others. Hence, in this situation Actus-Reus and Mens-Rea incurred at the same time
like; initially person is having “guilty mind” but furthermore he/she feel that thing which was
done is not right then this scenario shows the guilty act.
In simple words, Actus-Reus and Mens-Rea is the principle where both mental as well as
physical crime of the crime needs to present for someone to be responsible for murder. Hence, it
is often known as contemporaneity norms. In fact, few cases identification of “intent to do or
either its coincidence” is highly complex and difficult for court of justice.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been summarized that doing of any wrongful activities
doesn't mean that person is having same intention also. Throughout the assessment, it has been
understood that there is a major difference between guilty mind and act because sometime things
just happen without having that intention. At the same time, few people love to do criminal
activities such as; burglary, to harm someone for enjoyment or self-satisfaction and so on.
However, main objective of this project is to frame the major elements which falls under two
major terms that is; Actus-Reus and Mens-Rea. Apart from this, various types of intent was also
explained in the assignment for analysing the actual difference between several intentions.
Lastly, there are few situations which was shown in the project where Actus-Reus and Mens-Rea
occurred simultaneously.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Badar, M.E., 2013. The concept of mens rea in international criminal law: the case for a unified
approach. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Donson, F. and O’SULLIVAN, C.A.T.H.E.R.I.N.E., 2016. Building block or stumbling block?
Teaching Actus Reus and mens rea in criminal law. In The Teaching of Criminal Law
(pp. 31-43). Routledge.
Geary, R., 2012. Understanding Criminal Law. Routledge-Cavendish.
Keiler, J., 2013. Actus Reus and participation in European criminal law. Maastricht University.
Martin, J. and Storey, T., 2015. Unlocking criminal law. Routledge.
Nicolson, D., 2013. Criminal law and feminism. In Feminist perspectives on criminal law (pp.
31-43). Routledge-Cavendish.
Ong, R., 2013. Criminal law. In Understanding Criminal Justice in Hong Kong (pp. 25-55).
Willan.
Robinson, P.H., 2017. Should the Criminal Law Abandon the Actus Reus-Mens Rea
Distinction?. In The Structure and Limits of Criminal Law (pp. 3-28). Routledge.
Online
The Four Types of Mens Rea. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.tombruno.com/articles/the-four-types-of-mens-rea/>.
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