Legal Definitions of Crime

Before any behavior can be declared criminal, five specific conditions must be present. First, an act or omission must have actually occurred. The criminal act is reffered to as actus reus. Crimes such as conspiracy, solicitation and attempts to commit crimes (e. g., attempted murder) are incomplete crimes but real criminal intent is apparent in them. They are known as inchoateoffences. An omission is the failure to act when there is a legal duty to do so. Omissions that constitute criminality can arise from at least four types of situations: 1) where a law mandates a duty to care of another; 2) where one has particular legal relationship to another that carries specific duties; 3) where one has accepted a contractual duty to care for another and; 4) where one has voluntarily accepted the care of another, to the exclusion of others. A second condition that must be present before a crime can be said to have occurred is that a law forbidding or commanding the act must also exist. Criminal intent (mens rea) or negligence must be also be present before a crime can occur in a legal sense. Mens rea literally means guilty mind and is used to specify the character of the intent or negligence. Intent must not be confused with motive. Motive is what drives or prompts a person to commit an act (i.e., the reason or rationale). Intent refers to the person’s state of mind at the time when the act was committed. The term culpabilityis a legal reference to the blameworthiness of a person who was committed a criminal act. It refers to both the action and the mental state of the person performing it. Culpable actions are motivated by intent, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence. The exception to this general rule occurs in cases of strict or absolute liability.

American criminal codes recognize several types of criminal intent. General intent is present when the person’s actions show that the basic goal of the act is prohibited by law (e.g., to do someone bodily harm). Specificintentrefers to acts with the purpose of accomplishing a particular goal which the law prohibits (e.g., shooting a particular person). Intent can also be transferred from the intended victim to the person actually harmed. Transferred i n tent relocates the original intent of the act from the intended victim to those who actually suffered the consequences of the unlawful act.

Some crimes are defined in a way that does not require criminal intent. These are known as strict liability crimes. The formal definitions of such unlawful acts do not contain the need for criminal intent to be considered culpable conduct. Most strict liability crimes are acts that endanger the public welfare. They are described in the statutes so that a lack of intent to commit them is not a legal defense. Thus, (voluntary) intoxication is no defense for driving while intoxicated.

A fourth condition for a behavior to constitute a crime is that the act or omission must occur at the same time as the criminal intent or negligence is present. The fifth, and final, condition required for an act or omission to be defined as a crime is that the law must provide punishment for the act or omission.

Crimes are acts and omissions that meet all of these criteria and cannot be excused by a legally recognized defense. The most commonly recognized defenses for criminal conduct are insanity and self-defense. Other defenses recognized in common law are necessity and duress, mistake of law or fact, provocation, involuntary intoxication, consent, entrapment, double jeopardy, and compulsion.

The person accused of the crime must prove that one or more of these defenses is applicable to the case. It is for this reason that excuses and justifications are sometimes called affirmativedefenses.

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