Most blameworthy. requires no purposeful or conscious bad mind in the actor. Less blameworthiness and some maintain it shouldn’t even qualify as a criminal state of mind….From most to least blameworthy, the MPC’s four mental states are:

(c) Recklessly. A person acts recklessly with respect to a material element of an offense when he consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct.

The elements of a crime are criminal act, criminal intent, concurrence, causation, harm, and attendant circumstances. Only crimes that specify a bad result have the elements of causation and harm.

• Purposely.
• Knowingly.
• Recklessly.
• Negligently.

As with the actus reus, there is no single mens rea that is required for all crimes. The mens rea refers to the intent with which the defendant acted when committing his criminal act. On the other hand, the motive refers to the reason that the defendant committed his criminal act.

In order for the actus reus to be established, it must be proved that the act was performed voluntarily. If it was an involuntary act, then this is usually not enough to secure a conviction, except in rare circumstances such as offences of strict liability.

Actus reus is the Latin term used to describe a criminal act. Every crime must be considered in two parts-the physical act of the crime (actus reus) and the mental intent to do the crime (mens rea). Actus reus is commonly defined as a criminal act that was the result of voluntary bodily movement.

Mens rea means to have “a guilty mind.” The rationale behind the rule is that it is wrong for society to punish those who innocently cause harm. Actus reus literally means “guilty act,” and generally refers to an overt act in furtherance of a crime.