5 Elements Of Crimes Paper

Define crime, its relationship to the law, and the two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal.

Actus reus, or the guilty act and physical activity was proved through DNA testing leading to an act of commission by Steven Avery (McPhate, 2016). Mens rea, or a guilty mind was presented as Wisconsin proved the crime was committed by Steven Avery through intent and malice. His form of criminal intent and committing the act itself was enough to convict him of murder rather than manslaughter. Therefore, the presence of actus reus and mens rea allowed law enforcement to accept that the crime had been committed and the accused, Steven Avery, was responsible. Wisconsin Law Enforcement proved Avery’s criminal intent to harm as he was aware of his actions and possibly leading consequences and therefore, purposely and knowingly murdered Wisconsin photographer, Halbach through passion and premeditation. When referencing the charges Steven Avery faced, such as first degree murder shows the level of criminal intent to harm the victim, Teresa Halbach. Murder is commonly referred as a deliberate unlawful act where one purposefully and knowingly kills another (McPhate, 2016). Additionally, Avery being charged for kidnapping proves his level of intent and premeditation as he supposedly took Halbach against her will to eventually result in his intent to harm her, sexually, and kill her (Westfall et al., 2016). Therefore, regarding this charge against Avery

A better way to interpret the following terminology of Mens Rea ad Actus Reus,is presented by the author Heller, from article The Cognitive Psychology of Mens Rea, “Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea-"the act does not make a person guilty unless the mind is also guilty," (p. 317). With the understanding behind the crime, there must be an understanding to why.

The five principles of a crime are the guilty act or actus reus, the guilty intent or mens rea, the relationship between guilty act and guilty intent, the attendant circumstances and the results. The guilty act or actus reus is the inception of a crime, “this criminal liability occurs only after a voluntary act that results in criminal harm” (Neubauer & Fradella, 2014). This protects Americans from being punished for bad thoughts. The guilty intent or mens rea establishes and distinguishes between the mental state required in committing a crime. This insures that Americans are not prosecuted for innocently causing harm to another. The relationship and union between the guilty act and the guilty intent further distinguishes an act from being

The second component of a crime, mens reus, or criminal intent, was demonstrated by the following example. At one point Miller covered Cannon with a sheet and stated, “Cole, I am God, I’ve come to take your life” (2012, p.1) The third element of a crime, concurrence, was chronologically sequenced with Miller’s intent to commit the act followed by his commission of the criminal act.

There are three conjoined elements of crime: Mental State (Mens Rea), Conduct (Actus Reus), and Concurrence.

Shestokas (2012) states, there are basic principles underlying the prosecution of a crime. A crime is composed of elements. These elements include a mental state, prohibited action and lack of legal justification. The government beyond a reasonable doubt must prove each of these elements. If any element is not proven, the person charged must be found not guilty. Let us discuss the three elements that forms the basis in the prosecution of a crime. The first element is mens rea, meaning the defendant state of mind when he engages in prohibited conduct. The four types of mens rea are: purposeful, knowing, reckless, and negligent. The second element is actus reus. As you know, there is no punishment for thinking about a criminal act. Generally,

Illegal drug use, prostitution, and gambling are often debated as victimless crimes, consequently, some feel that they should not be considered criminal activities (Bohm & Haley, 2011). There are seven elements that define criminal activity harm, legality, actus reus, mens rea, causation, concurrence, and punishment. When determining if a particular activity or behavior should be a criminal activity, ideally, it should meet all seven elements, however, in cases one or more elements may not be present.

A crime consists of an actus reus and a mens rea, in order to obtain a conviction of a criminal charge there must be a concurrence between the actus reus and mens rea. The elements of a criminal act

Four theoretical aspects that any criminal theory must incorporate to be a true theory of crime are correlation, theoretical rationale, time sequence, and an absence of spuriousness (Akers & Sellers, 2013). Correlation must do with how the theoretical cause of crime leads to the commission of crime. Theoretical rationale explains why the theoretical origin of crime causes the crime. The time sequence must show that the theoretical cause of crime always precedes the crime. The final aspect, the absence of spuriousness, rules out other causes for the crime as the real explanation of crime. (Akers & Sellers, 2013).

Mens rea, defined by Glanville Williams as “The mental element necessary for a particular crime,” plays a crucial role in determining the criminal liability of the accused in the Scottish legal system, particularly as the mens rea for a crime may not always be wicked as the previously used term “dole” inferred. The mens rea must usually be established in order to convict. Motive however, defined by The Oxford Dictionary as “a reason for doing something,” is not necessarily a compulsory factor, although it is useful, when deciding whether or not an individual is criminally liable, excluding crimes such as sexual offences where motive is a required factor. In order to consider the significance of these terms in the development of criminal liability in Scots law one must first determine the origin and different types of mens rea, and the relevance of these roots and varieties in the current meaning of mens rea. Additionally, one must determine the relevance of motive, particularly regarding sexual offences. Mens rea must also be considered alongside the actus reus; the behavioral element of a crime. It must be stated that on some occasions it is unnecessary to prove the mens rea, however this is only relevant in specific circumstances, such as in strict liability offences. Whilst determining motive is not essential, it may have the effect of mitigating the sentence in practice, and it is important that this is duly recognized. Lastly, one must acknowledge that mens rea may

If I were conducting an in-service to my fellow officers over the five elements needed to constitute a crime, I would do by going over, explicitly what each element is and provide an example. Furthermore, I would then tie all elements in together for a larger example. According to Brody and Acker (2010), Professor Jerome Hall developed the framework of the five general elements to a crime, which are:

The seriousness of the charge determines, in part, the conditions under which the police may make an arrest and the court level where the charges will be heard (Cole, Smith, & DeJong, 2017). States laws may further divide the categories of crimes into subcategories. For example, offenses against the person may be divided into the categories of “Violent Crimes” and “Non-Violent Crimes.” Some states also place sexual crimes in their own category. These categories are also developed for sentencing (Shoener, 2017). The meanings of the different types of crimes all falls into why having laws in our country is important. Each crime has a different meaning to them and some can very serious and some can be less serious but at the end of the day a crime is a crime. No matter what crime it is, a crime is still wrong. Crimes can also be divided according to criminal intent. The major intent categories are General Intent Crimes and Specific Intent Crimes. These labels refer to the state of mind that a defendant must have to be found guilty of a crime. This is a difficult concept to master, but can be very important to your defense if you are charged with a crime (Shoener,

Men’s rea described from the motive stand point, is like a guilty conscious in someone’s mind. It would be similar to having a goal and following through with it. ”The reason a person commits a crime is motive” (Hall, 2015). Mens rea and motive however, are different from each other. The motive is the step that was used prior to the crime and knowing what the intentions were in that motive can help key parts through men’s rea. A good example of motive in play: Bob was walking through the parking lot. While bob was walking through the parking lot, Bill was backing up but unaware Bob was behind him and ran over him. Now that would be an accident however look at it in a motive view: Bob was walking through the parking lot. Bill knew Bob was walking

When looking at crime there are five general elements that need to be considered. First, we will consider mens rea which is the mental element necessary for a crime (Brody & Acker, 2010). To determine if there is a crime we must consider the mental state of the offender. There is no crime unless there is wrongful intent however, there is no general terminology of mens rea that fits all crimes alike. There is no single state of mind common to all crimes. The term mens rea is a far-reaching term with one single element, the intent to commit a crime; the mental element necessary to convict a person of any particular crime. It has also been loosely defined as the criminal state of mind of the person when they committed the crime (Brody & Acker, 2010).