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Basic Elements of a Crime

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The Basic Elements of a Crime
Kaplan University

The Basic Elements of a Crime
Citizens and residents of the United States must follow the laws put into place by our justice system. If citizens do not uphold the law the United States’ criminal justice system will intervene to punish individual/s for the wrongful offenses that were intentionally performed. In this paper I will give a brief overview of criminal law, the distinction between mens rea and actus reus, the concurrence of mens rea and actus reus finishing with “The Simmons Criminal Matter” case file.
Criminal Law
Criminal law consists of prosecution by the federal or state government, through a prosecutor initiating a suit, upon an individual or individuals for a wrongful offense that was deemed as a crime and was intentionally performed. The individual or individuals charged with the commission of a crime may be incarcerated, fined or both.
“A crime is a social wrong or social evil punishable under the law also known as a criminal statute.” (Hames and Ekern, 2010) Most crimes in the United States are established by local, state and federal governments. Crimes include common law, felonies which are more serious offenses and misdemeanors the less serious offenses. No offense can me deemed as a crime if it has not been previously established as such either by statute set in place by the government or common law. All statues defining criminal intent can be broken down into three basic elements: mens rea also known as guilty state of mind, actus reus also known as the physical act by the individual or individuals and concurrence which is the relationship between mens rea and actus reus.
Mens Rea
The mens rea “depicts the state of mind indicating culpability of criminal intent, which is required by statutes as an element of crime.” (Hames and Ekern, 2010) According to the Model Penal Code (a collection

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