Essay On Criminal Law

The doctrine providing that in order for a criminal offense to be complete, the actus reus and the mens rea must coincide in time (Herring, 76), is a significant doctrine in criminal law that requires the concurrence of these two elements in order to establish a criminal offense. Mens rea is one of the important elements of a crime that provides for the presence of a criminal intent when committing a crime. On the other hand, the actus reus is the actual commission of a crime that refers to the action by which an accused does to express his criminal intent. It can be said that the mens rea is the mental intent to commit a crime while the actus reus is the physical manifestation of such intent. The elements of a crime require the following: (1) guilty act (actus reus), (2) guilty mind (mens rea), (3) concurrence of 1 and 2, (4) cause, and (5) injury or harm. According to Monaghan (72), the doctrine requires to meet the pre-requisite of criminal liability by applying the principle of coincidence where it must be proven that the accused has the mens rea or intent to do a criminal act at the time that the criminal act (actus reus) was actually performed. Otherwise, no offense was committed. It can be deduced based from this doctrine that when a person cause an injury to another due to accident in the absence of a criminal intent or mens rea, the person will not be criminally liable for the offense committed. The principles of concurrence or coincidence must be proven in order to establish a criminal liability to the offender. Thus, it can be said that there is no liability with criminal thoughts alone. To be criminally liable, one must manifest such criminal thoughts through action in order to be criminally liable. Emanuel (51) emphasizes that both the mental and physical state of the crime must concur with each other in order to establish a criminal offense, otherwise, a criminal act (actus reus) without the intent to cause harm (absence of mens rea) will not result in a criminal liability. The significance of the doctrine in criminal law is that it is necessary to prove that the accused has intended to cause harm or injury through his actions in order to make him criminally liable for his acts or omission, for in the absence of intent, the elements of a crime is not sufficiently met for a successful criminal prosecution.

References:

Emanuel, Steven. Criminal Law. New York: Aspen Publisher. Print.
Herring, Jonathan. Criminal Law. New York; Routledge. 2013. Print.
Monaghan, Nicola. Criminal Law Directions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2012. Print.