Mens rea
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Mens rea is the mental state of a criminal defendant. In Latin it means "Guilty mind". Usually there are four levels of mens rea in crimes, in descending order of culpability:
1. intent
2. knowledge
3. recklessness
4. negligence
The trend in trials and in legislation has been to weaken the requirement of proof of mens rea. A utilitarian view of justice does not depend on mens rea, while a moral view of justice does. Mens rea usually combined with actus reus is used to produce criminal liability.