Essential Elements of a Crime

Mens Rea- guilty mind

Actus Reus- guilty act

Concurrence- guilty act and a guilty mind occurring at the same time

Essential Elements of a Crime
Directions:
You will be assessing the four essential elements of a crime for the provided
scenarios.
1. Read through each of the provided scenarios.
2. Determine whether the scenario is a crime and who should be held responsible for
the crime, and address each of the following questions  based on whether or not the scenario has the following elements of
a crime:
1.Guilty Action
2.Guilty Mindset
3.Both
4.Crime: Yes/No 

5.If it is a crime who should be charged and why?

Ex: In this scenario the suspect had both a guilty mind and actions. Also this was a crime committed by Jose because he assaulted Alex. 

Scenario #1: Mauricio enlists the help of his friend Ken to move a large mirror
from his truck into his home. Mauricio lives on a busy road, and the sun reflects on
the mirror and causes a large glare which temporarily blinds a driver, who crashes
into the car in front of him. The driver dies as a result of the injuries caused in the
accident.

Scenario #2: Taylor’s children have been kidnapped. The kidnappers tell her she
must rob a bank to pay the ransom. If she fails to rob the bank, or goes to the police
the kidnappers say her children will be killed. Desperate to keep her children safe,
Taylor robs the bank.

Scenario #3: Richard decides to drop some rocks from an overpass to see if he
can crack the pavement below. Right before he drops the rocks, he thinks “I hope I
don’t hit a car and hurt someone.” However, his rock hits a car and causes the car to
swerve and flip off the road. Both passengers in the car were killed.

Scenario #4: Juan is driving his sons to school. They are fighting in the
backseat and he turns around to discipline them. His car swerves into the other lane
forcing a car off the road, killing the passengers. 

Scenario #5: Sophie is six years old. She was playing with her friend Grayson,
using her father’s gun. She accidentally shoots and kills Grayson. 

Scenario #6: Antonio is deer hunting for the first time. He aims at a deer, but
accidentally hits a hunter who was standing nearby. 

Scenario #7: Jenna is cleaning her gun. She jokingly tells her boyfriend, “I’m
going to shoot you” and pulls the trigger. A bullet was stuck in the gun and kills her
boyfriend. 

Scenario #8: Tanner is messing around and shooting at a stop sign. He misses
and accidentally shoots and kills a passing runner.

Scenario #9: Stephanie is being cruelly bullied physically and emotionally by a
girl at school. Stephanie feels unsafe and brings a knife to protect herself. When the
bully begins harassing Stephanie, Stephanie stabs her. 

Scenario #10: Thomas goes into a gas station with the intention to rob it. He
has a mask on and a gun. At the last second he sees two police officers come in to
the building. Thomas runs off

Scenario #11: Steven sees a couple of his friends beating up an older man in
an alley. He doesn’t join in, but watches and stands guard. Steven and his friends
leave the man unconscious in the alley.