criminal intent
Planning illegal acts
Criminal intent is the mental state required to commit a crime—the conscious decision to do something illegal or cause harm.
In legal contexts, it distinguishes deliberate wrongdoing from accidents or negligence: The prosecution must prove criminal intent to secure a murder conviction.
Also called *mens rea* in legal Latin.
Without criminal intent, many acts that cause harm aren't crimes.
- malice aforethoughtPrior intent to harm
- mens reaBlameworthy mental state
- guilty mindIntentional criminal awareness
- premeditationAdvance planning of action
- first degreeInitial academic credential
murder · felony murder · culpability · willfulness · motive · fraud · foreseeability · burden of proof · beyond reasonable doubt · probable cause · smoking gun · coercion · deliberate · knowledge · confession · moral reasoning · homicide · theft
- criminal lawfelony, misdemeanor, murder, robbery, theft
- homicide lawhomicide, murder charge, manslaughter, first-degree murder, second-degree murder
- Roman LawRoman law, Corpus Juris Civilis, Justinian Code, Twelve Tables, Digest
- criminal defensesinsanity plea, insanity defense, legal insanity, diminished capacity, mental incapacity
- criminal intentmens rea, guilty mind, malice aforethought, premeditation, mental state
- criminal liabilityculpability, mens rea, blameworthiness, fault, legal responsibility
criminal intentgood intentions
good faith · lack of intent · innocence · clean hands · good conscience
criminal intentaccident
Unintended harmful event
accidental harm · inadvertence · mistake · negligence · happenstance
criminal intentgood intentions
crime, criminal, intend, intent, intention, criminals, intentional, intentionally, intends