Criminal Law Elements
The two basic elements of a crime are the act of doing that which is criminal, and the intention to carry it out. In Latin this is called the actus reus and the mens rea. In many crimes however, there is no necessity of showing criminal intention, which is why the term "strict liability" is used.
Read more about this topic: English Criminal Law
Famous quotes containing the words criminal, law and/or elements:
“Think of admitting the details of a single case of the criminal court into our thoughts, to stalk profanely through their very sanctum sanctorum for an hour, ay, for many hours! to make a very barroom of the minds inmost apartment, as if for so long the dust of the street had occupied us,the very street itself, with all its travel, its bustle, and filth, had passed through our thoughts shrine! Would it not be an intellectual and moral suicide?”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.”
—Walt Whitman (18191892)
“An illustrious individual remarks that Mrs. [Elizabeth Cady] Stanton is the salt, Anna Dickinson the pepper, and Miss [Susan B.] Anthony the vinegar of the Female Suffrage movement. The very elements get the white male into a nice pickle.”
—Anonymous, U.S. womens magazine contributor. The Revolution (August 19, 1869)