Criminal Law
The actus rea and the mens rea are both important terminologies in the United States criminal law. These terminologies signify that an act cannot implicate a person to be guilty unless the mind is guilty also. Actus rea is the concrete criminal act while the mens rea is the psychological part of committing the crime. Before a physical criminal act is done, a mental crime must have taken place according to the principle of actus rea and mens rea as a comparison between the two principles. In every criminal case, an action including the intention must always be established for that particular person to be charged with the particular crime. The degree of the kind of action taken must also be established to determine the cause and the action to be taken for the crime (Dressler, 2015). Crime can be intentional and unintentional, for example, a person can intend o shoot another person but misses the shot, later some years the same person runs over the other accidentally and dies (Ashworth & Horder, 2013). The first occasion would be murder while the next is manslaughter and both have different punishments. Therefore, the principle is beneficial to the defense rather than the prosecution.
The three strikes laws are very important in the criminal justice system as a person who is regarded as a criminal for more than three occasions is sentenced to life imprisonment, therefore, saving the community many years of peace once the criminal is sentenced. The criminals who are subject to this law will definitely spend most of their lives in prison serving the jail sentences as the law will implicate them to more serious convictions (Glenn, 2016). Criminals might also be deterred from engaging in any criminal acts as the three strikes law could end their free lives. In this way, crime has reduced significantly in the states where the law is active. For example, in California crime has reduced since the criminals fear the impacts of being subjected to the three strikes law.
References
Ashworth, A., & Horder, J. (2013). Principles of criminal law. Oxford University Press.
Collins, S. J. (2015). Three strikes. Overland, (220), 108.
Dressler, J. (2015). Black Letter Outline on Criminal Law. West Academic.
Glenn, D. (2016). Three Strikes Laws. The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment.
