Conservative advocacy group Right on Crime urged lawmakers to reform the “criminal mental state” requirement in federal criminal codes in a report published recently, reported Jurist. The report also criticized the proliferation of laws that require no specific mental state as contributing to over-criminalization in the country.
Right on Crime contends that “there has been an explosion of
criminal laws passed by Congress and promulgated by federal executive agencies”
where mens
rea requirements have been intentionally omitted. The paper argued
that the growth of federal law and lack of mens rea requirements have
damaged public confidence in criminal law by “creat[ing] cynicism and
indifference to the whole criminal law.”
The report further argued that mandating a mens rea requirement
in every federal criminal statute would help eliminate over-criminalization and
the abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Seven recommendations were given
including executive action, new legislation making mens rea statutory
requirement for criminal law, adoption of the rule of lenity which would force
courts to interpret ambiguous statutes in favor of defendants, and better
tracking of the volume of crimes to better inform legislators and the public.
Mens rea is a requirement in criminal law that an
accused individual have a particular mental state when a crime is committed to
be found guilty of a crime. Mens rea requirements are considered
foundational to criminal law, examples include requirements for “malicious
intent” when prosecuting first degree murder charges or requirements that a
defendant “knowingly” engage in certain conduct to be found liable in other
crimes.
On the other hand, strict
liability crimes are crimes where an accused is found guilty simply
based on whether or not the prohibited activity occurred. They are typically
rare or disfavored for their lack of flexibility when applied to widely
different sets of facts since they do not consider what a person was thinking
or intended when they committed a certain act. Nonetheless, the multitude of
“strict liability” crimes nowadays has drastically increased the Federal Register where
federal laws are published has gone from 16 pages in 1936 to an average of
70,000.
Compared to the traditional conservative “tough on crime”
approach, Right on Crime views crime from a fiscal perspective and highlights
the high cost of imprisoning criminals. The group mandates to advocate for
cost-effective approaches to enhance public safety without jailing nonviolent
and low-risk offenders.
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