Most of the time, those of us who have had the unfortunate situation of getting tagged with a ticket did in fact violate the law. Whether intentional or not, traffic infractions (commonly known as “tickets”) are those crimes which do not require mens rea–or criminal intent–to perform the act. So whether we weren’t paying attention, unintentionally drove a little too fast, or didn’t notice that red light, we still violated the law and have to pay the fine.

Traffic infractions are what are known in the law as malum prohibitum acts, meaning that the Indiana General Assembly has prohibited certain behaviors or activities. These activities aren’t necessarily immoral or destructive, but they are wrong merely because we say they are.Continue reading→