INTENT, INTENTION or INTEND MENT, in criminal law and in the law of evi dence: the purpose; formulated design ; a re solve to do or forbear a particular act; aim; determination; end; object,— which a person may have. It is not synonymous with motive, attempt, or, as some think, with promise. In its literal sense, the stretching of the mind or will toward a particular object.
To render an act criminal or wrongful, in tent must exist. And with this intent must be combined a wrongful act, mere intent is not punishable. And generally, perhaps always, intent and act must concur in point of time. But wrongful intent may render criminal an act otherwise lawful.
Intent is in a certain sense essential to the commission of a crime, and in some classes of cases it is necessary to show moral turpitude, but there is a class of cases where purposely doing a thing prohibited by statute may amount to an offense though the act does not involve moral wrong. When shippers pay a rate when under honest belief that it is the lawful rate when it is not, we have an instance of this.
Some jurists incline to a somewhat James like (see INTENT in psychology) interpretation of Intent, even in law. Intent "is the exercise of intelligent will, the mind being fully aware of the nature and consequences of the act which is about to be done, and with such knowledge, and with full liberty of willing and electing to do it." Among such interpretations
see Burrills (Circ. Ev. 284, and notes). To accept this method, however, appears to mean the acceptance of in what at the be ginning of this article is called the sense" rather than the A wrong done to the person or property of another is punishable at law without considera tion of the intentions of the person committing the violence or trespass. .But when an engage ment has been made by person, or a written disposition of property executed, the intention of the person making the engagement or sign ing the deed is fair matter for legal inquiry. In this connection a subsequent stipulation by word of mouth is not competent to nullify or modify the terms of a written engagement. In tent also forms an important part in suits for defamation, fraud and negligence. Negligence must have intent to make it criminal, so must defamation and fraud and malicious mischief. Consult Thayer, 'Preliminary Treatise on Evi dence' (1898) ; Black, 'Construction and Inter pretation of Laws' (1896) ; Hardcastle, 'Rules which govern the Construction and Effect of Statutory Law' (1900).