What constitutes Criminal Negligence per statute 939.25?

Criminal negligence, as defined in statute 939.25, involves a situation where an individual's conduct demonstrates a high degree of ordinary negligence. This means that the person's actions reflect a significant departure from the standard of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar circumstances.

The key aspect of criminal negligence is that it goes beyond mere carelessness or a failure to act; it signifies a blatant disregard for the safety of others. A high degree of ordinary negligence indicates that the individual not only acted unreasonably but did so in a way that could foreseeably result in harm to others. This understanding is vital because it establishes the threshold for legal culpability in criminal cases, differentiating between minor lapses in judgment and those that signify a reckless disregard for human life or safety.

Other definitions presented, such as a high disregard for personal safety or conduct creating a minor risk, do not adequately capture the essential legal concept of criminal negligence as stipulated in the statute. They might refer to various levels of care or awareness, but they lack the legislative grounding that characterizes criminal negligence as an offense. The phrase "conduct creating no risk at all" is fundamentally inconsistent with the definition of negligence, which inherently involves the potential for harm.