Intent in Criminal Law
The cluster focuses on debates about the role of intent (mens rea) in determining criminal liability, frequently contrasting murder versus manslaughter and discussing negligence or recklessness.
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Well, it's like in murder vs manslaughter, the intent matters (but not to the point to get you completely off the hook).
IANAL, but intent definitely has a lot to do with law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intention_(criminal_law)
You could be. Courts have ruled for intent vs the actual act a number of times.
That would run against law as it stands in most places https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea
Way to ignore the notion of intent when evaluating a "crime".
Intention does matter to be fair. It's murder versus manslaughter.
Intention is besides the point. The only thing that matters is impact. For example, in US case law, there is the concept of Involuntary manslaughter: killing as the result of negligent or reckless actions.
I'm not sure what the law currently is, but it seems that intent shouldn't really matter that much here.
> The law doesn't care about your intent.This isn't correct. The law in most modern democracies, as far as I'm aware, is very concerned with intent.This why we generally define murder and manslaughter as distinct.Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought.
Usually the action is a crime and the intent scales the crime. If you accidentally kill someone due to negligence that is manslaughter. If you intended to do it that is murder.