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ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF CRIME

 


Crime

A Crime is an unlawful Act punished by the state or any lawful authority. A crime or an offence is an act which is harmful not only to the person but also to the community, society or state. Such acts are forbidden and punished by law. Every crime violates the law but every violation of the law does not commit a crime.

Definition

Blackstone defined crime as, “an act committed or omitted in violation of a public law either forbidding or commanding it”.

Elements of Crime

Every country usually has its own set of codified laws describing various crimes and punishments. In India, this can be either the Indian Penal Code or any other special criminal laws. Regardless of which laws we refer to, there are always some elements of crime common to all of them. These elements generally constitute the backbone of every criminal case.

The main criminal laws in India include the Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act and Criminal Procedure Code. People often refer to these three as general laws. Apart from these three laws, we also have other laws that relate to specific kinds of offences. For example, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act deals with particular financial crimes. Even other laws that do not specifically regulate crimes, like the Companies Act, contain some offences and penalties. The most important thing common in all these laws is that they contain certain basic elements. The following are four basic elements of crime:

 

Accused person (human being)

Mens rea (state of mind and guilty)

Actus reus (human conduct)

Injury (harm to some other/thing)

 

Accused person

Human being must commit wrongful Act to fulfill first element of a crime that means any non living thing or animals are not considered in the category of a human being. In Indian Penal Code if animal cause injury we do not make animal liable but the owner is held liable for such injury so the first element of crime is human beings who must be given appropriate punishment and should be under legal obligation to held criminally liable. The law should always be able to pinpoint the person who is responsible for committing an offence.  ‘Person’ is defined in Section 11 of Indian Penal Code which includes company, association or body of persons whether incorporated or not. Therefore, even a trust, an NGO and a public company can commit offences.  The word person includes artificial or juridical persons. He is a legal entity created by law which is not a natural person such as corporation created under state statute. It is a legal entity having a distinguished identity and legal rights and obligation under the law. Furthermore, certain offences can implicate more than one person for the same crime. In such cases, all persons will face trial and may have to face punishment together.

 

Mens rea

The second element is derived from the famous maxim Actus Non-Facit Reum Nisi Mens Sit Rea. This maxim is divided into two parts:

a) mens rea (guilty mind);

b)  Actus reus ( guilty act ).

It means the guilty intention and guilty Act together constitute a crime. It comes from a maxim that no person can be punished in a proceeding of criminal nature unless it can be shown he has a guilty mind. The second element is Mens rea which can be explained in various forms a guilty mind; a guilty or wrongful purpose; a criminal intent, guilty knowledge and willfulness all constitute the same thing that mens rea. Motive and Intention are both aspects in the field of law and justice both are very important. They are also associated with the purpose of proving or disproving a particular case or crime Wrong motive with guilty intention is necessary to prove criminal liability.

 

Actus reus or illegal Act or omission

It is the Latin term used to describe a criminal Activity. It is commonly defined as a criminal activity that was the result of voluntarily bodily movement. This describes a physical Activity that harms another person or damages property. In other words, due to guilty or wrongful intention, some overAct or illegal omission must take place. There are two types of Actus reus first is commission and the second one is an omission. The commission is as a criminal activity that was the result of voluntarily body movement. This describes a physical Activity that harms a person or property. Against human body includes physical assault, murder, hurt, grievance, hurt etc & property includes theft, decoity, extortion etc.

The omission is another form of Actus reus as an Act of criminal negligence. An omission could be falling to warn others that you have created a dangerous situation.

 

Crimes in the absence of mens rea

Although mens rea is an essential element of crime, some offences can occur without it. For example, Section 304-A of IPC makes death by negligence a criminal offence. In such cases, a “negligent act” would not include the intention to cause death. However, negligence or mistake itself is sufficient to constitute a crime.

Injury

The last of the basic elements of crime is an injury. There can be no crime if no person faces some kind of an injury. The fourth requirement of a crime is injury should be caused to another person or to society at large. According to Section 44 of  Indian Penal Code, 1860 the injury is defined as any harm illegally caused to any person in body, mind, reputation or property by another person. However, there can be some crimes which might not require injuries to anybody. For example, driving without a driving license is a crime even if it may not harm anybody.

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