• Criminal liability consists of five principles.Justice image by MVit from Fotolia.com
  
  Criminal liability is composed of the mental intent and the physical actions of an individual who commits an offense against the laws of a society. The person must intend to cause the crime and commit the act to be held criminally liable. Criminal liability consists of five principles: actus reus (guilty act), mens rea (guilty mind), concurrence, causation and resulting harm.
  
  

Mens Rea---The Guilty Mind

• Mens rea is the mental intent to commit a crime. If an individual willfully planned to commit a crime with knowledge that the act was illegal, he has satisfied the mental aspect of criminal liability. There are four basic types of intent: general (committing a crime), transferred (unintended harm to another victim), specific (cause a specific result) and constructive (harm greater than what's intended). Barring a confession, the evidence that proves mens rea is usually the actions of the individual. A person who steals a car, for example, most likely had the intent to steal a car. Anyone who lacks the ability to form criminal intent due to, for example, a mental illness, is exempt from this element. Mens rea by itself is not a crime. It must be connected to a criminal act.
  
  

Actus Reus---The Guilty Act

• Actus reus is the act of the crime, such as stealing a car, that has violated a legal statute. The action must be voluntarily committed to satisfy the physical action necessary for criminal liability. Words can sometimes satisfy the principle of actus reus when they are used to commit acts such as harassment or terrorist threats.
  
  

Concurrence

• Concurrence is the legal requirement applied to some crimes that states mens rea and actus reus be performed at about the same time. Mens rea precedes the actus reus by a period of time, no matter how short. The concurrence can be temporal (occurring at the same time) or motivational (actus reus is motivated by mens rea).
  
  

Causation

• To prove legal causation, you must show the consequences of the criminal act would not have occurred in absence of that act. For example, if a person suffers a broken arm after an assault, you must prove the injury was actually caused by the assault alone.
  
  

Resulting Harm

• Resulting harm refers to the actual injury or harm an individual suffers due to a criminal act. It can range from physical injury to the loss of property. The harm must be directly correlated to and a result of the criminal act to rise to the legal standard.