Crime

Crime:

The word “Crime” is derived from a Greek word “Krimos”, which means a “Social Order” and it is applied to those acts which go against the social order and are worthy of serious condemnation.
Any act which is forbidden by the criminal law without Just Cause or Excuse is called a Crime.

An act or intent must content a crime.

According to Blackstone, a crime is an act which is committed or omitted in the violation of a public law either by forbidding or commanding it.

Essential Elements of Crime:

To constitute a crime, the following elements is too satisfied, they are: 

1) Human Being
2) Men’s Rea
3) Actus Reus

4) Injury

1. Human Being:

The first essential element of crime is that it must have been committed by a human being.

2. Men’s Rea:

Men’s Rea is an essential element of Crime.
Men’s Rea means, “Mental Element or a guilty mind”
It means that, the mental element is necessary to constitute a criminal liability.

According to Samshul Huda, the very corner-stone of the criminal jurisprudence is the Men’s Rea.

The Maxim, “Actus Non Facet Rheum Nisi Men’s Sit Rea”
This means, an intent and an act must both concur each other to constitute a crime.

For a person to be held guilty of a crime, it is necessary that he had an intention to do it.

Eg: A person to be held guilty of a theft, it is necessary that he had the intention to steal it.

In R V

Khandu
The accused gave some blow on the head of the deceased with the intention of

killing him, as a result of which the deceased became unconscious. Believing him to be dead, and with a view to remove evidence against himself, the accused set fire to the victims hut. The medical evidence said that even though the deceased suffered serious head injuries, he had died not because of the same but of burning. The accused pleaded that his crime had been committed in two stages.

In the first, when he hit the deceased on the head even if the guilty mind, i.e., his intention to cause death could be concluded from evidence, the medical report said that the death did not result because of head injuries.
This showed that men’s rea was present but actus Reus was absent. So guilty act and guilty mind both not being present together at this stage his liability under criminal law did not exist.

In the second stage when he set fire to the hut, he was already under the belief that the deceased was dead, which meant that his guilty mind had already ceased and he set fire to the hut only with a view to destroy the evidence to save himself. At this stage too both guilty act and guilty mind were not present together since only actus Reus and not men’s rea was present, and he could not be held guilty of the crime. The court accepted his plea and his conviction of attempt to commit murder were quashed.

3. Actus Reus:

Actus means, “Consequences of Human Conduct”, Reus means “Prohibited/punishable by law”.
Actus Reus is the result or a deed which is prohibited by law.
It is also a result of human conduct as the law seeks to prevent it.
The actus Reus in constituted by the event and not by the act or omission which caused the event.

Eg:

In

Sec-306: Abetment of Suicide:
The commission of abetment is a mere human conduct and the commission of suicide is the actus Reus.

OmPrakash V

State of Punjab

In this case, the husband did not provide food to his wife and locked her in a room. She somehow escaped and filed a suit.
The Supreme Court convicted the accused for attempt to murder.

4. Injury:

The last ingredient to constitute a crime is Injury.
Injury means to cause harm to any person in body, mind, reputation etc.