Art. 472 General intent

When prosecutors write up charges for crimes that only require "general intent," they don't have to specifically state in the charging document that the person acted intentionally. General intent crimes are ones where the law assumes you meant to do the act itself, without needing proof of some special purpose or goal behind it.

This means the indictment or bill of information can simply describe the criminal act without adding extra language saying the person did it "on purpose" or "intentionally." The law already builds that assumption into these types of crimes, so spelling it out isn't necessary.

For someone facing charges, this means prosecutors have less they need to specifically write out when charging general intent crimes. It doesn't lower the burden of proof at trial. The state still has to prove the person committed the criminal act, but they don't need to separately prove or state some specific mental purpose behind it, since general intent is presumed from the act itself.