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I do believe that intentionality should be something of a mitigating factor when it comes to the prosecution of crimes. While it is a tired saying, accidents do happen, and while those accidents can have devastating consequences, it doesn't seem just to treat a person who committed a crime accidentally (barring some kind of willful ignorance of a law that they ought to have known about) the same as a person who willingly commits the same crime. That being said, to expand on your idea about the presence of authority, I do feel like that does make a major difference. Showing remorse and subsequently turning yourself in before or shortly after your crime is discovered should be treated differently than those who only begin showing remorse after they come face to face with the likely consequences of their actions as I feel that speaks to the depth and sincerity of the remorse.