Criminal Minds and Community Views

• In Event: Law, Courts, and Public Perspectives on Crime, Punishment, and Justice

Abstract

This Article reports results from the largest—and first-ever nationally representative—survey of U.S. public opinion on mens rea (Latin for guilty mind). Working with an experienced polling company, we administered a carefully-curated questionnaire covering a host of mens rea topics—including risk awareness, motive, and intoxication—to more than 6,000 U.S. participants. The survey’s results and our accompanying multivariate analyses provide the most detailed and statistically rigorous representation of public attitudes conducted to date. Our survey provides reason to believe that the most salient characteristic of contemporary mens rea policy—its emphasis of gradations in risk awareness—broadly reflects public opinion in the manner that both policymakers and scholars have generally assumed. At the same time, our study also uncovers unexpected nuances to the relationship between risk awareness and community sentiment, while revealing the strong influence of other aspects of mens rea—motive—on community sentiment that current law often ignores. After detailing the most notable areas of (in)consistency between mens rea policy and public opinion, this Article will discuss the potential implications our findings may have for legislative drafting and criminal law reform.

Authors

• Michael Serota, Loyola Law School - Los Angeles

• Alex Sarch, University of Surrey

• Daniel McCarthy, University of Surrey