AS Law Criminal Law
... Criminal Law Sophie was driving her car when it stalled at the lights. ... (a) Criminal liability is based on the concepts of actus reus including causation and mens rea. ... Actus reus can be simply translated to mean ‘blameworthy act’ and is used to describe the event on which a criminal offence is based. ... The prosecution will have to show that the conduct was the factual cause and also the conduct was the cause in law. ... Causation in law is associated with moral responsibility and the question asked is …. ... To be a cause in law the defendants conduct need not be the sole, major or even substantial cause of the result. ... There are three states of mind which either separately or together constitute the necessary mens rea for a criminal offence and these are ‘intention’, ‘recklessness’ and ‘negligence’.