Understanding Basic Criminal Law: Mens Rea and Actus Reus Explained (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Even though criminal law interests everyone, and it's something everybody will deal with at least once, a lot of people don't know very much about it. Here are a few basic concepts that might help. Beware, though, this isn't legal advice, just a general explanation. Let's start with the two most basic elements of any crime. First, mens rea. Now, mens rea is not, as it sounds, some sort of manly death ray. Mens rea is Latin for guilty mind. To commit a crime, you need to have a particular state of mind when you act. Obvious, right? Let's use an example. If you commit a criminal act like bank robbery, but you're sleepwalking, then you didn't act with a guilty mind, and so you didn't commit a crime. You have to act with a guilty mind at the exact time of the criminal act. So if you decided to murder someone, and on your way there you're not paying attention and you hit them with your car, that's not murder, because even though you had a bad act and a guilty mind, you didn't have the guilty mind when you did the bad act. You were thinking about something else. An actus reus is just a fancy word for a criminal act. Can't commit a crime without action. Even if you want to commit a crime, you may not actually be successful. This is called an attempt. An attempt is a special crime that requires two things be present. First, the guilty mind, or the intent to commit a crime. Second, an act, something significant enough that the attempter is showing they really want to commit the crime, but not actually committing the entire crime. The world is full of criminals who didn't quite pull it off, for all kinds of reasons. The difference in the criminal act is the important part. If you committed the whole act, it wouldn't be attempted robbery, it would just be robbery. For example, grabbing a purse but not actually taking it would be a big enough act, to be an attempt. But touching a purse and passing, while you think about possibly grabbing it, would not be enough, even though you were thinking about it. So it's important not to jump the gun on stopping an attempt. Having the intent is still important. You can't commit an attempt because you're being reckless or not paying attention, even if you could commit the underlying crime that way. So while you can recklessly commit manslaughter, you can't recklessly attempt manslaughter. You can't recklessly attempt to commit any crime, for that matter. It might be another crime, but not attempt, because you have to intend to commit a crime for an attempt to take place. And there you have it. For more information, visit www.FEMA.gov