In criminal law and in the law of tort, recklessness may be defined as the state of mind where a person deliberately and unjustifiably pursues a course of action while consciously disregarding any risks flowing from such action. Recklessness is less culpable than malice, but is more blameworthy than carelessness.

To commit a criminal offence of ordinary liability (as opposed to strict liability) the prosecution must show both the actus reus (guilty act) and mens rea (guilty mind). A person cannot be guilty of an offence for his actions alone; there must also be the requisite intention, knowledge, recklessness, or criminal negligence at the relevant time. In the case of negligence, however, the mens rea is implied.

Criminal law recognizes recklessness as one of four main classes of mental state constituting mens rea elements to establish liability, namely:

The tests for any mens rea element relies on an assessment of whether the accused had foresight of the prohibited consequences and desired to cause those consequences to occur. The three types of test are:

The most culpable mens rea elements will have both foresight and desire on a subjective basis.

A subjective test is applied to offenses requiring intent, knowledge or wilful blindness.

For recklessness, a subjective test is applied to determine whether accused wilfully took an initial action that is inherently risky (such as drinking alcohol) but an objective test is applied to determine whether the commission of the actus reus could be foreseen (by a reasonable person).

For carelessness, once the prosecution proved the acteus reus, the defendant must prove that they exercised all the care a reasonable person would to prevent the actus reus from occurring.