Intent!

“As per section 375 of Indian Penal Code, will and consent both are required… And will is put before consent”… Submits Richa Chadha in the Indian movie Section 375.

It is an interesting movie – if not for a 30 second clip at the end that destroys the whole movies unbiased-ness (& to be honest a weaker characterization of the prosecution lawyer does that too)… It delves very well into the grey area of how to prove a crime when everything ultimately boils down to testimonies of opposing parties…

In the movie the accused is convicted because he is in a position of power and hence prima facie capable of influencing the consent of the victim under different types of duress… hence if the victim claims that she was in that specific event without her will (i.e. her consent was under duress and not by her intent) – even if in the past similar acts between them were by her will and consent… the accused in power stands to lose and victim is considered true…

And that made me think… For then this is really a curse for a person in power… For there is no recourse if such a law is accepted to hold… As how do you prove intent of someone???

Intent – essentially is ones desire translated in to the purpose of an action… So when we say we did not intend or we did intend for anything, we are essentially talking about our desired result from that action…

Hence intent boils down to our desire… How do we prove what one truly desires or wants…

Do our actions show our intent?

Humans are the only species who can hide or mask or have different intent for the same action… Any action unfortunately can be for variety of purposes… A judge can sentence someone to death i.e. kill and so can a murderer… The result is the same… The intention behind the act however are different – to uphold the law of society on one side while an ulterior one on the other… Actions by themselves are hence a very poor indicator of intent…

So we view actions in conjunction with a variety of other things to establish intent… The position of the person, the character of the person, the circumstances in which the acts are performed…

The social position of a person is relatively easy and objective to identify… For we have set hierarchies in human society… And it is that position of the person viewed together with the act which is the curse I spoke about before as how to avoid… So moving on…

Character judgement is the most debatable and easy to manipulate facet in human society… Personalities are projected, created… One can hire image consultants… One can hire PR managers… Social media also becomes a source which can be manipulated or misused…

A lot of character judgement boils down to the value system of the person making the judgement as well… A tyrant character in one society is considered a benefactor in another… A terrorist as a crusader… Salman Khan is a hero to many and a murderer to some… Maulana Azhar a freedom fighter in one’s eyes and a terrorist is another… A physical tiff between spouses is accepted as part of life for some whilst for others its a sign of physical abuser for others…

Benchmarks for a characterization of someone differs with value system of the one making the judgement, era and time at which the judgement is made and the social / media influences along with attempts of personal brand management by someone… Hence what one sees is tinted by their time and ethics and other external influences… Not necessarily a true depiction of a person…

However this character assassination, prediction, stereotyping is now a science… Behavioral sciences (as shown in multiple criminal TV series) now show how the whole mental makeup of someone can be deduced based on their past actions and known social life…

Honestly though – behavior and actions are dictated by personality and character… I don’t aim to refute that… But that judging someone’s character is not really objective and is easily manipulated by myriad factors…

But assuming that one judge’s one character correctly… Will the known personality type + the act committed be a true indicator of an intent for current and future acts?

Imagine there is this person known to be physically violent, easily angered and has many times beaten spouse in past… now this person is involved in a road accident with a woman driver where it has led to a physical fight… both this person and the woman claim the other one started the fight first with no other information available… Who is to blame?

The very first sentence will conjure up a male figure (for that is the mostly the case in world today) in your mind even if I have not specified the gender of the person… Second you will most likely would have put the blame on the man for the incident in a normal circumstance (outside of this blog) – even though I have not given any more information on the other party except that she was a woman… This is character stereotyping…

And if you think I am writing this on behalf of man only… You are wrong… Happens with women all the time as well… Say there is a valuable item lost from a person’s home… They have a helper (image of a woman comes up even if I say nothing here) who is known to be in financial duress… What happens?

Imagine a woman known to party late nights, wearing short dresses, smoking and drinking… Accused of having an affair with a married man.. what happens?

List can go on… You get the drift…

Like financial markets where past performance hold no guarantee for future returns… similarly past behavior does not necessarily guarantee the same actions in future… They are probable but not guaranteed… And like how we believe and still invest financially, so does it happen in case of judging ones character and intent behind any act…

So what is the way out? Cannot judge by actions alone, cannot base decisions on perception of one’s character / past actions… Then how?

Maybe a polygraph lie detector test could help perhaps??? But even they are known to be prone to manipulation by countermeasures and not accurate…

Probably use of hypnosis or mind numbing drugs could help ascertain the true intent… But those measures are controversial as well…

Essentially today there seems to be no way to prove the true intent of a person beyond doubt other than circumstantial evidence, past actions and current position based character certification and consistency in previous actions…

And till the time science does not come up with mind reading methods… There will be cases where people will say what shahrukh khan said in the movie chalte chalte… “Mein karna kya chahta hu aur ho kya jata hai” (what I intend to do, and what ultimately happens!!!)…

And people who are in a stronger position will need to remember their disadvantage in case of no clinching evidence… Society will always root for the David against any perceived Goliath!