Speaker 1: You live in a society, and in a society, there are some things that you really, really shouldn't do. The easiest example is murder, so let's do an illustration of that. Let's say I murder you, with clear motives, a perfect plan, and perfect execution. It's simple, cold-blooded murder. To most, if not all members of our society, that's just wrong. There's lots of reasons for that, from the anguish your family would have to go through, to the idea that letting me get off scot-free would mean that future murderers could also get away with their acts. But one thing is for sure, if murder is just wrong in the eyes of society, then I deserve to be punished by society for committing such a wrong. So enter the criminal law. The criminal law harnesses the power of society to inflict a punishment on me that is suited for my crime. In legal terms, the society we live in is called the state, and in the criminal law, the state prosecutes individuals who commit crimes, and sentences them to punishments which fit their crimes. Okay, so you might ask how the state decides on a punishment to fit the crime, in every case. We cannot fully deal with this question today, but we can talk about its most distinctive answer, the idea of acts and states of mind. Let's say I'm driving on a road, and I see someone crossing the road on a green light, so I stop and let them cross. But then I realise, the one that's crossing the road is you, my life enemy, so I step on the gas and I run you over, killing you. Well, how wrong do you think that is? I think it's almost as bad as our earlier example of cold-blooded murder. Okay, so let's change that up. Let's say instead of seeing you and deliberately running you over, I see you and try to drive around you, and I kill you in the process. How wrong do you think this is? You probably still feel quite disgusted at what I did, but I think that our earlier example of me deliberately driving into you was way worse. Alright then, let's play with one more example. Let's say I'm driving normally on an open road, and you're walking on the pavement, but all of a sudden, your phone falls from your pocket, and you leap onto the road to catch it. As a side note, please never do that, but anyway, in this case, I can't stop in time, and I kill you. So how wrong do you think I am here? For that matter, do you think I'm wrong at all? We can explore these questions in a later video on the various states of mind, but for now, let's look at our examples as a whole. In all these three examples, the acts I did were almost completely similar. I was driving on the road, and I killed you with my car. But somehow, each of these three examples don't feel as wrong as each other. That's because even though the same act was committed, it was committed with a different state of mind each time. In legal terms, it is said that a criminal offence consists of both guilty acts and a guilty mind. In old Latin legal terms, these are called the actus reus and mens rea, respectively. So today, we talked about how criminal law harnesses the power of the state to punish criminals, and we played with the ideas of actus reus and mens rea. Of course, criminal law goes much deeper than this, but I hope that this video has been helpful for your understanding. If you're a law student, don't forget to do your readings as well, and for everyone out there, law students and non-law students alike, hope you have an amazing day ahead. Take care of yourselves, and please stay out of trouble.