ACTUS REUS AND MENS REA LAW02 AQA!

Actus reus

 A criminal offence usually requires both a guilty act (actus reus) and a guilty mind (mens rea). The actus reus of a crime is the voluntary, deliberate act of the defendant. If the defendant’s act is not voluntary, there can be no crime. This can be seen in Hill v Baxter (1958). In this case the court gave examples of situations where a driver of a car would not be driving voluntarily. These examples included being stung by a warm of bees and being hit on the head by a stone. Actus reus must be proved in every criminal case. Although crimes are often similar in some ways, each crime must be looked at individually to see what needs to be proved because every crime is different in some aspects from every other crime. Therefore, actus reus includes the conduct of the defendant, the circumstances of the assault, and the consequences of the defendant’s conduct towards the victim. Many Acts of Parliament require a person…