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Class #5: Introduction to Mental States
We now turn to the most important topic in the course: mental states. The key to understanding different crimes is to understand how their mental states differ. Although the common law came first, we’ll start by examining the Model Penal Code definitions of the key mental states: purpose, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence. Only after we have a good understanding of those terms will we go back and examine how the common law approached mental states. We’ll focus on the key traditional common law crimes: burglary, larceny, murder, arson, battery, forcible rape, and statutory rape.
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