4.2 Mens Rea

The internal element — the guilty mind, graded by the Code's own ladder: Intention: purpose or foresight of the virtual certainty — the deliberate wrongdoing; the highest form of blameworthiness (murder's grade); Knowledge: awareness of the circumstances — including the Code's "knowing" definitions (receiving stolen property knowingly); Recklessness: the conscious unjustified risk-taking — aware of the risk, taking it anyway (the rash-and-negligent family of the Code; reckless homicide's grade); Negligence: the failure to meet the standard of the reasonable person — the risk NOT consciously taken but one the reasonable person would have seen (the civil twin, LAW 311; the negligence homicide's grade). The two levels of the ladder's logic: the higher the mental state, the heavier the grade of liability (the Code's homicide ladder of Unit 9 is the doctrine's statutory embodiment — intention → knowledge → recklessness → negligence). The doctrines: the presumption of mens rea (statutory offences presumed to require fault unless clearly excluded — strict liability, Unit 1.3.2, as the exception).