| A | B |
|---|
| Mistake: mistake of fact | You know the law but perceived the situation to be different than it actually is: thus mens rea is reduced or absent. |
| Provocation and Intoxication | This is only a partial defence and sometimes reduces the charges (e.g., murder to manslaughter): thus mens rea is also reduced but not absent. |
| Self-defence | To save your own life: thus mens rea is reduced or absent. |
| Duress | You coerced or forced to commit a crime (e.g., at gunpoint): mens rea is reduced or absent. |
| Necessity | Forced to commit a crime for a greater good (to save a life): mens rea is reduced or absent out of greater need. |
| Justification | Police shooting of suspect: mens rea is reduced or absent out of the need to protect the public (the use of reasonable force is also permitted by law). |
| Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorde | Mental disorder is a legal not a psychiatric test. In order to be responsible, one must know the difference between right and wrong; therefore mens rea is absent because knowledge is absent. |
| Automatism | You lack free will due to medical condition (e.g., sleepwalking, brain tumour, etc.): mens rea is reduced or absent. |
| Consent | In property and sexual crimes, if consent is successfully argued, then mens rea is absent and so is actus reus since no crime has actually occurred. |
