With regard to the explanation of the subjective elements of the crime of environmental pollution, there are mainly three kinds of views in academia: negligence theory, intentional theory and mixed theory. In addition, there are also different views in judicial practice. Therefore, different verdict appears pertaining to the same case. It is worthwhile to reflect on such viewpoints. In order to prevent the criminal law from being elevated and thus violating the principle of legality before the legislation is amended, the subjective elements should be interpreted to the intentional theory which is closer to the justice of criminal law. The research into the subjective elements of the crime of environmental pollution in the future should be carried out from two dimensions of explanatory theory and legislative theory. The former needs to further study the legal connotation of the 2nd term of Article 15 of the Criminal Law, which states that “laws have provisions”. The latter, on the basis of the study of comparative law,makes a study to improve legislation on the following aspects: the punishment of negligence offenders; the stipulation of negligence offense; the sentence of negligence offenders.