Note 361 — Chapter XVIII · INTENTION AND NEGLIGENCE.

An excellent analysis of the conception of negligence is to be found in Merkel’s Lehrbuch des deutschen Strafrechts, sects. 32 and 33. See especially sect. 32 (1): “negligent wrongdoing is that which is not intentional, but results from culpable inadvertence (Unaufmerksamkeit) or indifference (Gleichgultigkeit). The mental attitude of the wrongdoer consists not in any desire to do harm, but in the absence of a sufficient desire to avoid it. The law is not satisfied with the mere absence of any intention to inflict injury, but demands a positive direction of the will towards the avoidance of it.”