Impact of Crime on Community
Added on 2020-05-28
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Running head: POLICING POLICINGName of the Student: Name of the University:Author note:
1POLICINGAssessment Criteria 3.1 Define the Characteristics of Crimes, including How They Are CommittedTo be stated in ordinary language, an unlawful act, which is considered as apunishable act by the state or the other authority, could be defined as a crime (Sadat 2013).However, in the modern criminal law, to define crime is not simple. English criminal law,which is the body of law in the jurisdiction of England and Wales deals with the crime andtheir consequences (Stephen 2014). Crime is considered as an offensive action against thewhole community. To define the crime, it should be classified into two sections, one is actusreus and the other is mens rea. These are two Latin terms. Actus reus is the external elementof a crime, which means the act of guilt or doing something that is prohibited (Reichel andAlbanese 2013). It defines the performance of the actual crime, which should be a deliberateact. The intention or the mindset to commit the crime is known as the mens rea, which issometimes known as criminal intent. When it is translated from Latin, mens rea means guiltymind. Mens rea could be four types, which are intentional, knowing, reckless and negligent.The purposeful action of the offender is the intentional mens rea (Reichel and Albanese2013). For example, if a person decides to rob a bank or a store, his action could be countedas intentional. Hence, in the act of robbery, the intentional mens rea has been expressed. The knowing mens rea is the mindset of an offender who knows that his action wouldbe counted as a criminal activity. When an offender acts knowing that he is committing thecrime and his activity would be the result of his action (Norrie 2014). For example, A asks toborrow the keys from B who works at the local bank. However, if B provides the key to Aafter knowing that A would rob the bank, B would likely have a knowing mens rea if the
2POLICINGbank were robbed. B has provided the keys of the bank to A knowing that A is a bank robber,therefore he has knowing mens rea. When a person decides to involve in behavior after knowing the risks of his action hismens rea is reckless mens rea (Turner 2013). When someone drives drunkenly and causes aserious accident then that person has reckless mens rea. The person does not intend to causeharm; however, he is aware of the risk of the harm when he drives drunkenly. The last type of mens rea is negligent mens rea, which sometimes called criminalnegligence. The criminal act occurs due to a negligent mindset of the criminal and thejurisdiction system would ask that if a reasonable person were in the same situation whetherhe would have acted in the same way or differently (Badar 2013)? The example of thenegligent mens rea is that if a child’s caretaker would leave the child alone in the park and thechild would have a serious injury after falling from the slide, then the mindset of the childcaretaker constitutes with the criminal negligence. When the guilty act or actus reus is proved after a reasonable doubt and combineswith the guilty mind or mens rea, it produces criminal liability according to the criminal lawjurisdiction of England and Wales. These two terms were developed in the English Law.Edward Coke stated the principle namely, ‘actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea’. These twoterms are derived from the principle stated by the Edward Coke. Originally, the principle is inLatin, however, after translating the principle into English it becomes ‘an act does not make aperson guilty unless their mind is also guilty’ (De Than and Shorts 2013). Hence, accordingto the principle, the crime is not only the act; rather it entails the intention and thought behindthe act.The final basic component of the crime is concurrence, which constitutes the act andthe mental state to commit the crime. The mental state and the action need to work at the
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