Crime and its Essentials | Actus Reus and Mens Rea

INTRODUCTION

A crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of public law forbidding or commanding it. In Pakistan, where the whole criminal law is enacted and codified, crime means an act punishable by the Pakistan Penal Code or other penal statutes.

DEFINING THE TERM CRIME

In a Literal Sense, Crime means:

Activities that invoke breaking the law; illegal acts or activities that can be punished by law.

According to Austin:

A wrong which is pursued at the discretion of the injured party or his representatives in a civil injury, a wrong which is pursued by a sovereign or his subordinates is a crime.

ESSENTIALS OF CRIME

1. HUMAN BEING:

The first essential of a crime is that the act must be committed by a human

who is under a legal obligation to act in a particular manner
who is a subject for award of appropriate punishment

2. MEN’S REA:

The second important essential of a crime is Mens Rea or evil intent۔ There can be no crime of any nature without an evil mind. Every crime requires a mental element; even in strict or absolute liability, some mental element is required. That is why Mens Rea is considered a fundamental principle of penal liability.

3. ACTUS REA:

Some overt act of illegal omission is necessary to take place in pursuance of the guilty intention. It is said that something in addition to a Mens Rea is required to produce criminal harm, and the Actus Rea is constituted by the event and not by the activity which caused the event.

4. INJURY:

It is essential that the injury should be illegally caused to any person i.e. human being in body, mind, reputation or property.

MENS REA:

Mens Rea means guilty mind or criminal intention. It is a state of mind that is required to commit a crime.

ESSENTIALS OF MEN’S REA:

The Men’s Rea may assume distinct forms. They are as follows.

1. INTENTION/KNOWLEDGE:

Intention is an essential ingredient when attempting to commit an offence. It includes the maximum voluntariness in it and so it takes to the conclusion of the particular act done. That is why severe punishments are attached to crimes done with bad intentions.

General Intent: A crime requiring merely “general intent is a crime for which it must be shown that the defendant desired to perform the act which served as the Actus Reus.

Specific Intent: Where a crime requires specific intent means that the defendant must have desired to do something further.

2. RECKLESSNESS:

Recklessness means unjustifiable risk-taking۔ It involves substantial risk, a risk of which the defendant is consciously aware and ignores it. The risk must be one which in all circumstances is unreasonable to take.

Subjective Recklessness: The defendant must know that he is taking a risk of the forbidden consequence of the act being occurred. He recognizes that there is a risk and he is aware of its happing. It means that he foresees the possibility of its happening and still he ignores it and takes unjustifiable risk.

Objective Recklessness: In objective recklessness, the defendant is blamed for failing to think and act in accordance with ordinary standards of conduct laid down by the courts.

3. NEGLIGENCE:

Negligence means the failure to take due care which a person is expected to take in the circumstances of a particular situation. If the defendant was aware of the risk and decided to take it, he was reckless. But if he was unaware of the risk but ought to have been aware of it, he was negligent. There are two kinds of negligence which are discussed below.

Gross Negligence: the defendant falls seriously short of the standard i.e. expected of the ordinary prudent person, it is Gross Negligence or Extreme Carelessness.

Ordinary Negligence: On the other hand, ordinary negligence is not a serious one and it is Average Carelessness.

4. STRICT LIABILITY:

Strict liability is the case where no Mens Rea is required. The defendant is held liable for the criminal offence at the same time when he does that illegal act. These are not very grave offences and do not have a long or grave punishment.

In Pakistan, the penalty for some of the strict liability offences even goes up to death. Following are the areas where strict liability offences are to be found.

Blasphemy
Drugs
Qatl-l-Khata
Unintentional hurt where compensation in some form has to be paid
Weapons
Driving and traffic offences

ACTUS REUS:

Actus Reus is a Latin phrase that literally means the guilty act. The Actus Reus of an offence includes all elements of crime except the mental element. It can be an act, a circumstance, an omission, a state of affairs or an occurrence. Actus Reus means;

An act that is done in furtherance of intention or due culpable to prevent.

ESSENTIALS OF ACTUS REUS

The Actus Reus is comprised of the following components.

A) Conduct

1. Acts
2. Omission
3. Possession

B) Circumstances

1. Before Occurrence
2. After Occurrence

A) CONDUCT

1. ACT:

The main element of any Actus Reus is the defendant’s conduct, such conduct usually consists of some act or act on the part of the defendant.

Voluntary Act: Muscular movement of the defendant must be willed by his conscious mind. If they are not willed by the defendant’s conscious mind then they would be regarded as involuntary act, until and unless it is proved, that the behaviour of the criminal was to inflict harm, it will not constitute liability.)

Automatism: “A person is automation when has no control over his muscular movements,” Most of the cases falling under involuntary act concern automatism. Automatism is divided into different kinds/types such as:

- Automatism due to insanity
- Automatism due to other reasons
- Self-induced automatism.

2. OMISSION

A person will be liable where a specific statutory provision imposes a duty to act and he fails to fulfil his duty.

Example: Willful neglect of a child or failing to report a motor accident.

3. POSSESSION:

The law recognizes various degrees of this Act. Possession means physical control over some person.

Constructive Possession means being physically under your control.

Unwilling Possession is where something has been planted on yours and you know nothing about that.

The only punishable types of possession are the ones that are conscious and knowable e.g. possession of narcotics.

B) CIRCUMSTANCES

Every crime, no doubt, requires the presence of some defined surrounding circumstances. These circumstances may constitute a “state of affairs” that makes the act of the accused unlawful. It is clear that no crime can be committed unless all the elements of Actus Reus are present including any prescribed circumstances.

1. BEFORE OCCURRENCE:

Section 378 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 gives the definition of theft. It is mentioned in the section that the conduct which is the central feature of the crime is “appropriate property. It is an essential circumstance before the occurrence, which must be present in that the “property belongs to another”.

2. AFTER OCCURRENCE:

The circumstances after the occurrence in the above-stated illustration are that nothing needs to result from the defendant’s act of taking the property and therefore theft is a conduct crime.

EXCEPTIONS TO GENERAL RULE

Generally, it is true that criminal liability can be imposed only where Actus Reus either coincides with the Mens Rea. But in some cases, one can be held liable in the presence of the elements.

Without Mens Rea: In case of strict liability, where there is no Mens Rea but only Actus Reus nevertheless criminal liability would be imposed on the defendant. e.g. violation of traffic rules etc.

Without Actus Reus: In case of conspiracy against the state, there is no Actus Reus but only Mens Rea nevertheless the defendant would be held liable for the criminal act. There is no need to prove Actus Reus in this case.

CONCLUSION

There are two basic essentials/elements of the crime. They are Actus Reus and Mens Rea. The prosecution is generally required to prove Actus Reus and Mens Rea and existing of the two at the same time; when these conditions are fulfilled, only then the criminal liability can be imposed.

FAQs

What are constituting elements of a crime? Discuss them in detail.

(2014-A)

Define crime and explain the different stages in the commission of the crime.

(2008-A)

What are the different forms of Mens Rea? Discuss in detail.

(2016-A, 2014-S)

Discuss all forms of Mens Rea as a constituent element of a crime.

(2015-S)

A crime is constituted of two elements namely Actus Reus and Mens Rea. Leaving the Mens Rea, Discuss Actus Reus in detail.

(2015-A)