# Title 12.1 — Criminal Code

## Chapter 12.1-02 — Liability and Culpability

### § 12.1-02-01. Basis of liability for offenses.

1. A person commits an offense only if the person engages in conduct, including an act,
an omission, or possession, in violation of a statute which provides that the conduct is
an offense.
2. A person who omits to perform an act does not commit an offense unless the person
has a legal duty to perform the act, nor shall such an omission be an offense if the act
is performed on the person's behalf by a person legally authorized to perform it.
### § 12.1-02-02. Requirements of culpability.

1. For the purposes of this title, a person engages in conduct:
a. "Intentionally" if, when he engages in the conduct, it is his purpose to do so.
b. "Knowingly" if, when he engages in the conduct, he knows or has a firm belief,
unaccompanied by substantial doubt, that he is doing so, whether or not it is his
purpose to do so.
c. "Recklessly" if he engages in the conduct in conscious and clearly unjustifiable
disregard of a substantial likelihood of the existence of the relevant facts or risks,
such disregard involving a gross deviation from acceptable standards of conduct,
except that, as provided in section 12.1-04-02, awareness of the risk is not
required where its absence is due to self-induced intoxication.
d. "Negligently" if he engages in the conduct in unreasonable disregard of a
substantial likelihood of the existence of the relevant facts or risks, such disregard
involving a gross deviation from acceptable standards of conduct.
e. "Willfully" if he engages in the conduct intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly.
2. If a statute or regulation thereunder defining a crime does not specify any culpability
and does not provide explicitly that a person may be guilty without culpability, the
culpability that is required is willfully.
3. a. Except as otherwise expressly provided, where culpability is required, that kind of
culpability is required with respect to every element of the conduct and to those
attendant circumstances specified in the definition of the offense, except that
where the required culpability is "intentionally", the culpability required as to an
attendant circumstance is "knowingly".
b. Except as otherwise expressly provided, if conduct is an offense if it causes a
particular result, the required degree of culpability is required with respect to the
result.
c. Except as otherwise expressly provided, culpability is not required with respect to
any fact which is solely a basis for grading.
d. Except as otherwise expressly provided, culpability is not required with respect to
facts which establish that a defense does not exist, if the defense is defined in
chapters 12.1-01 through 12.1-06; otherwise the least kind of culpability required
for the offense is required with respect to such facts.
e. A factor as to which it is expressly stated that it must "in fact" exist is a factor for
which culpability is not required.
4. Any lesser degree of required culpability is satisfied if the proven degree of culpability
is higher.
5. Culpability is not required as to the fact that conduct is an offense, except as otherwise
expressly provided in a provision outside this title.
### § 12.1-02-03. Mistake of fact in affirmative defenses.

Unless otherwise expressly provided, a mistaken belief that the facts which constitute an
affirmative defense exist is not a defense.

### § 12.1-02-04. Ignorance or mistake negating culpability.

Repealed by S.L. 1975, ch. 116, § 33.
### § 12.1-02-05. Causal relationship between conduct and result.

Causation may be found where the result would not have occurred but for the conduct of
the accused operating either alone or concurrently with another cause, unless the concurrent
cause was clearly sufficient to produce the result and the conduct of the accused clearly
insufficient.
