Knowledge

The Model Penal Code and Its Levels of Criminal Intent

Those fairness concepts were codified by the American Law Institute (ALI) in 1962 in the ALI's official draft of its Model Penal Code (MPC). The Model Penal Code is just that, a model. Unless enacted into law in a particular state, the MPC is merely advisory. But upon the creation of the Model Penal Code, it quickly became the gold standard, and now most states have adopted Model Penal Code concepts, principles, and provisions in whole or in substantial part. The Model Penal Code's conceptions of intent will illuminate the meaning of “knowledge” in the criminal law. The highest (most serious) level of criminal intent under the MPC is [Page 545]“purpose,” achieved when the actor's conscious objective or purpose in committing the act is to cause the harm.

Under the MPC, if the actor commits the criminal act with the purpose of causing the harm, that actor acted with purpose. As one example, a murderer acts purposely when he aims a gun at the victim and fires the weapon with the purpose of killing the victim. Purpose is analogous to “intent” in many state criminal codes.

The slightly less serious level of criminal intent within the MPC is “knowledge,” achieved when the actor is aware of the circumstances and is practically certain the harm will result from his criminal act. As one example, if a person puts a bomb aboard a plane with purpose of killing the pilot, he acted purposefully with respect to killing the pilot, but acted knowingly with respect to all the others on the plane, since he was practically certain they all would be killed by his criminal act. In the criminal law, the “knowledge” requirement may appear in many forms, including knowledge, knowing, knowingly, and with knowledge, among other variations.

The third level of criminal intent within the MPC is “recklessness,” achieved when the actor consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk in a way that is a gross deviation from the standard of conduct a law-abiding person would display in the same situation.

The lowest level of criminal intent within the MPC is “negligence,” commonly referred to as criminal negligence. This is similar to recklessness but is less criminal because the negligent actor should have known of the substantial and unjustifiable risk the actor disregarded, but the reckless actor consciously disregarded that risk.

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