What is Mens Rea? (Hindi)
Channel: Dr.Priya Sepaha
Date: 13/10/2020

This video explains mens rea in detail. Notes are available on our website also.

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Notes below:

Mens Rea 
The second important essential element of a crime is mens rea or evil intent or guilty mind or; a guilty or wrongful purpose; a criminal intent; guilty knowledge and wilfulness.

There is a well-known maxim in this regard, i.e. “actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea” which means that the guilty intention and guilty act together constitute a crime. It comes from the maxim that no person can be punished in a proceeding of criminal nature unless it can be shown that he had a guilty mind. 

Elements of mens rea:
1. Motive
2. Intention
3. Knowledge

• Motive 
Motive refers to the reason crime was committed. It is often the background of the suspect in committing the alleged crime. As a background, motive comes before intent. Unlike intent, motive can be determined, but its existence doesn’t exactly prove guilt. It can be refuted by evidence or an alibi on a suspected person’s part (often referred to as “a person of interest” in criminal jargon). The motive is an initial factor but not a conclusive determinant to link a person to a crime.
• Intention 
The intention is the supposed action or purpose of the crime. It is the result of the motive and has a higher level of culpability since a harmful action was committed. The intent is characterized as a deliberate action and conscious effort to break the law and commit the offence. Intent resides in the field of law where it is defined as the planning and longing to perform an act. It is present in both criminal law and tort law.
In finer terms, intention describes the will or plan of an individual. So, when an action is performed intentionally, it implies the willingness or aim of a person to do so and not an accident or mistake, where he/she is completely known about the consequences of the act. That is why intention is the primary element to affix the culpability.
No matter whether the act is committed with good intent or a bad one, if a person does something purposefully and consciously, which is prohibited by the law, it will amount to criminal liability.
Motive v. Intention
The intention is the basic element for making a person liable for the crime, which is commonly contrasted with motive. Though we often use the two terms interchangeably, these are different in the eyes of law. While intention means the purpose of doing something, motive determines the reason for committing an act.
The primary difference between intention and motive is that intention specifically indicates the mental state of the accused, i.e. what is going on in his mind at the time of the commission of a crime, whereas motive implies the motivation, i.e. what drives a person to do or refrain from doing something.
• Knowledge 
In criminal law, knowledge is one of the degrees of mens rea that constitute part of a crime. For example, in English law, the offence of knowingly being a passenger in a vehicle taken without consent (TWOC) requires that the prosecution proves, not only that the defendant was a passenger in a vehicle and that it was taken by the driver without consent, the prosecution must also prove that the defendant knew that it was taken without consent.
Under the principle of ignorantia juris non excusat, ignorance of or mistake about the law is no defence. The mens rea of knowledge refers to knowledge about certain facts. It is "a positive belief that a state of affairs exists.”
This term applies if a person is aware that his or her actions will have certain results, but does not seem to care. For example, if a person violently lashes out at someone, inflicting harm may not be her primary goal. However, if she was aware that harm would be a predictable result of her actions, then she is guilty of having criminal knowledge.

Levels of knowledge:
1. Purposely
2. Recklessly
3. Knowledge
4. Negligently