As Federal Crime List Grows, Threshold of Guilt Declines

[European blood]

For centuries, a bedrock principle of criminal law has held that people must know they are doing something wrong before they can be found guilty. The concept is known as mens rea, Latin for a "guilty mind."

This legal protection is now being eroded as the U.S. federal criminal code dramatically swells. In recent decades, Congress has repeatedly crafted laws that weaken or disregard the notion of criminal intent. Today not only are there thousands more criminal laws than before, but it is easier to fall afoul of them.

As a result, what once might have been considered simply a mistake is now sometimes punishable by jail time.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576570801651620000.html

[Saturni]

Well in the US there were originally only eight felonies at Common Law and all were punishable by death.

Also not every crime needs to prove the element of mens rea in order to prove a person's guilt. Some crimes, like statutory rape or selling alcohol to minors are crimes regardless of whether the person committing them had mens rea.

Of course it's no surprise that the US congress is in the business of making new criminal laws, that's their job.

People forget what a huge industry law enforcement is. And what better way to to keep industry going than to make more and more laws. Seen as a simple business equation this all makes perfect sense. Making more laws means you create more opportunities for people to commit crimes. The more crimes that are committed, the more cops you need. The more cops you have, the more you have to spend on their equipment. Also, the more arrests the cops make, the more court room staff you'll need. More courts mean more convictions and more convictions means more convicts, which, in turn, means more prisons and prison guards.

It's a booming industry that will never go broke.