Criminal Justice: Principles of Criminal Justice

For an action or omission to be considered a criminal act, it must possess two essential features. Firstly, the criminal act must be committed; this is referred to as acts reus (Gledhill, & Livings, 2016). Secondly, there must be evidence that the perpetrator of the crime had the intent to commit the crime, and was in the frame of mind where they had deliberately decided to do it; this is referred to as mens rea.