CRM 1300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Cesare Beccaria, Actus Reus, Mens Rea

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRM 1300
• Professor: Michael Kempa

Document Summary

Codified rules for the exercise of sovereign authority. Utilitarian principles of preventing harm/producing the greatest good. Justice and fairness equal" punishment/correction on the basis of guilt and responsibility. Guilt and responsibility require both a wrongful (criminal) act (actus reus) and clear intention to do wrong/guilty mind (mens rea) Beccaria says there needs to be fairness, you don"t get to just kill people for dumb reasons. Instead, you want to lead to the good. You therefore need to aim to prove that you intended to do it. Beccaria was critical of the barbarity, irregularity and ad hoc nature of 18th-century criminal justice. Swift, certain, proportionate to the harm caused by the act. You would never have a punishment worse than the crime. The prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular event or state of affairs which contravenes the criminal law was caused by the accused person"s conduct.