Emotional Crime

In criminal law, the defendant must be proved to have committed a guilty act whilst having had a guilty state of mind. The physical elements are called "Actus Reus" and the accompanied mental state is called "Mens Rea".

When an actus reus is committed with no intention, the person may not be guilty of a crime. As is often the case, there are some exceptions. Some criminal offenses do not require the Crown to prove the "state of mind" of the accused. These offenses are called strict and absolute liability offenses and are mainly aimed at deterring risky behavior and stopping harm before it takes place. 

Humans tend to be criminals by harming each other in different ways. Whether physically or emotionally, hurt remains the prominent emotion felt by one of the parties, leaving an injury which may be difficult to fade away, an injury which is most likely to turn into a scar, and regret in many cases becomes the dominant sense felt by the other party.

The most difficult type of a crime committed by humans may be that which causes emotional harm, particularly when it is committed with no intention, using different tools such as sharp words, saying things at the wrong time or even worse, by remaining silent. People do good deeds for many reasons. However, such deeds may have bad consequences; as the old expression about helping people says "no good deed goes unpunished". When such crimes are committed and are not interpreted as strict or absolute liability offenses, the verdict of innocence becomes the main driver of regret, and it increases the amount of guilt in the committer's mind because no matter who we are, or how secure we feel, we all face moments of dread. We ask ourselves questions like "Have I hurt the person I love?", "Is there a chance people will never see me as innocent?" or "Have I caused permanent damage?". And sometimes, the answer is yes but this is life; we all experience moments of dread but there comes a time in life when we must expose our weaknesses, when our secrets can no longer remain confidential, when our solitude can no longer be denied, when our pain can no longer be tuned out, and even when we feel so alone that a weakness we thought we'd overcome suddenly becomes too long to fight, we need to stand still and brawl. Only then will we notice that it may be the little things that make us feel invulnerable, like a friend at bedtime, an evil eye bracelet, a bible on a table or a message from a lover and only then will we appreciate these small comforts and become aware that the word "sorry" is merely a simple word with no positive power, and only then do we realize that one action can be enough to countermand all impairment resulting from our ignorant modes.