Culpable Mental State refers to the state of mind of an individual while committing a crime. Generally, a crime requires that a guilty act or omission (the actus reus) be committed with the required degree of guilty mind. The term, Culpable Mental State is synonymous with mens rea (guilty mind).

It has been said that your actions are not what matters, but the intention behind the actions is where the real value lies. And in our training of non-judgment, this is probably the most important place to apply the saying. Intent is the meaning behind what you do.

Intent to kill refers to a person’s state of mind when they are trying to kill another person. They have the goal, or desire, to end a victim’s life, not just cause the victim to suffer a physical injury.

four mental states

A person acts intentionally if he acts with the intent that his action causes a certain result. In other words, a person acts knowingly if he is aware that it is practically certain that his conduct will cause a specific result.

The definitions of intentionally are – Done with intention or purpose; intended. That, dear reader, means action on a plan, goal, ambition or destination. To act intentionally means to act on purpose. To be intentionally intentional means to act with purpose on your intentions.

Recklessly for a conduct-oriented crime means that the person is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist.

CULPABLE FELONIES: act not malicious, unintentional and as an incident without malice. Results from imprudence (skill) or negligence (foresight)

Negligent intent crimes are less culpable than reckless intent crimes and are also less common. As the Model Penal Code states, “[a] person acts negligently… when he should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct”(Model Penal Code § 2.02(2) (d)).

Statistics on specific crimes are indexed in the annual Uniform Crime Reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and by annual National Crime Victimization Surveys by the Bureau of Justice Statistics….Crime in the United States.