As we have seen in previous tutorials, mens rea is considered the central concept of American criminal law.

Strict liability – imposing criminal liability without requiring proof of a culpable mens rea – stands in sharp tension with this principle.

Nonetheless, strict liability crimes, while limited in number and scope, are an important part of the common law tradition.

More recently, a modern type of strict liability, distinct from its common law predecessors, has developed in response to the unique kinds of social harms occasioned by modern industrial society.