Willful blindness (also referred to as deliberate ignorance, willful ignorance, and conscious avoidance) is
a criminal state of mind
that translates to putting your head in the sand. Lawyers call it the ostrich instruction, and despite its arguable justification, it is a well-established aspect of federal criminal law.
Is willful blindness a defense?
In today’s legal system, a person usually must be found to have some kind of mental culpability for the crime before he can be punished. …
Willful blindness thus negates any defenses that the defendant did not have the required intent to commit the crime
, or even know that he was committing the crime.
What are the two types of ignorance?
The first category is when we do not know we are ignorant. This is
primary ignorance
. The second category is when we recognize our ignorance. This is called recognized ignorance.
How do you prove Wilful blindness?
- Has the accused’s suspicion been triggered about a fact that would reveal a prohibited consequence or situation?
- Is the accused’s suspicion about the prohibited consequence or situation probable or at least likely to occur?
- Did the accused inquire about the suspicion?
Is willful ignorance a crime?
Courts commonly allow
willful ignorance to satisfy the knowledge element of a crime
. The traditional rationale for this doctrine is that willfully ignorant misconduct is just as culpable as knowing misconduct. … For some crimes, conviction requires knowledge of an inculpatory proposition.
What is willful blindness?
Willful blindness, also known as conscious avoidance, is
a judicially-made doctrine that expands the definition of knowledge to include closing one’s eyes to the high probability a fact exists
. … The use of the willful blindness doctrine in criminal prosecutions is deeply troubling.
What do you call willful ignorance?
willful ignorance (uncountable) (idiomatic, law) A decision in bad faith to avoid becoming informed about something so as to avoid having to make undesirable decisions that such information might prompt. Synonyms:
vincible ignorance
, willful blindness.
What causes willful ignorance?
Sometimes this is due to innocent memory failures or to the lack of needed information. … Willful ignorance occurs when
individuals realize at some level of consciousness that their beliefs are probably false
, or when they refuse to attend to information that would establish their falsity.
Is ignorant an insult?
Strictly speaking, ignorance, or being ignorant,
isn’t an insult
; it’s simply a lack of understanding. Geniuses are ignorant to all sorts of things, but these people are not stupid; instead, they are ignorant. This is an important distinction to make.
What are the 3 types of ignorance?
Ignorance can appear in three different types:
factual ignorance
(absence of knowledge of some fact), object ignorance (unacquaintance with some object), and technical ignorance (absence of knowledge of how to do something).
What is concomitant ignorance?
thomas aquinas distinguishes three kinds of ignorance: concomitant, consequent, and antecedent (Summa theologiae, 1a2ae, 6.8). ( 1) Concomitant ignorance
does not necessarily render an act involuntary
, as in the case of a man who wants to kill his enemy and does kill him while mistakenly thinking he is shooting a bear.
What are the 4 types of mens rea?
The Model Penal Code recognizes four different levels of mens rea: purpose
(same as intent), knowledge, recklessness and negligence
.
What is the difference between recklessness and wilful blindness?
Recklessness assumes a knowledge of a likelihood of a prohibited consequences. … In contrast to recklessness, wilful blindness
requires that the accused become aware of a need for inquiry and deliberately declines to do so
.
How can we prevent willful blindness?
SUMMARY ON WILLFUL BLINDNESS
Technology is never going to take the place of human interaction. To prevent Willful Blindness, start with
a default assumption we are blind
. We don’t want to see the stuff that’s most dangerous. Create conditions in your organization were it’s safe to see.
What is willful blindness in banking?
The concept of “willful blindness” originates in the law and refers to
a situation where a person seeks to avoid liability for a wrongful act by intentionally keeping himself or herself unaware of facts that would implicate them
.
What is willful blindness AML?
Wilful blindness is a legal term for which
a person is said to deliberately shut his eyes to the obvious
, the result of which he does not care to have, he may be said to have been willfully blind to the truth.
