What is the public rationale for enforcing strict liability laws and what alternative can you come up with to make all crimes have a mens rea requirement?

What will be an ideal response?


ANSWER: Answers may vary: The rationale for punishing people for committing an act regardless of mens rea is that it sends a message to the public that all ought to comply with the law, or be punished. The fact that strict liability crimes tend to be for regulatory crimes with minor punishment makes the public more tolerant of such laws. Making all crimes have a mens rea element would burden the justice system because most people would challenge and dispute such claims.

Criminal Justice

You might also like to view...

What happens when an employee's characteristics do not match the job's requirements?

A. High stress level B. Termination from the job C. Remedial stress training D. Stress counseling

Criminal Justice

Answer the following statement(s) true (T) or false (F)

1. Race is a relatively arbitrary, socially defined construct. 2. The liberation hypothesis holds that racial discrimination in sentencing is significant primarily in less serious cases. 3. Crime has in the past been primarily intraracial in nature. 4. Race is as crucial an explanatory variable in traditional crime commission as social class. 5. The concentric zone theory assumes that city growth occurs in a series of rings.

Criminal Justice

Based on relevant Supreme Court decisions, which of the following is most likely to result in a criminal charge?

a. Item A b. Item B c. Items C and D d. Item C alone

Criminal Justice

The illegal production and sales of material depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child is called:

a. statutory rape b. child sex trade c. sex trafficking d. child pornography

Criminal Justice