The Jurisprudence of Willfulness: An Evolving Theory of Excusable Ignorance

Ignorantia legis non excusat-ignorance of the law does not excuse-is a centuries-old criminal law maxim familiar to lawyer and layperson alike. Under the doctrine, an accused finds little protection in the claim But, I did not know the law, for all are presumed either to be familiar with the law\u27s commands or to proceed in ignorance at their own peril. The ignorant must be punished along with the knowing, the maxim teaches, to achieve a better educated and more law-abiding populace and to avoid the easy-to-assert and difficult-to-dispute claim of ignorance that would otherwise flow from the lips of any person facing criminal punishment. Despite this country\u27s long-standing allegiance to the hoary maxim, over the last century, and in particular over the last decade, the courts have seriously eroded the ignorantia legis principle by frequently construing the mens rea term willfully to require proof of an accused\u27s knowledge of the law. The erosive effect that these constructions have had on the ignorantia legis maxim is referred to in this Article as the jurisprudence of willfulness. Professor Davies demonstrates that, contrary to the maxim, the number of federal criminal statutes that have been construed to impose such a heightened mens rea requirement is already quite large. The Article reveals that, if the courts continue to employ their current interpretive approach to the term willfully, at least 160 additional federal statutes containing the term are at risk of similar treatment. The author argues that contemporary constructions of the troublesome scienter term to impose a knowledge of the law element have been grounded on doubtful, unchallenged logic and have bequeathed a legacy of grave interpretive confusion. Professor Davies maintains that much of the jurisprudence of willfulness is inimical to congressional judgments and, therefore, violative of rule of law and separation of powers principles. The Article urges a return to the ignorantia legis principle in all cases in which a clear legislative intent to abandon the maxim when employing the term willfully is missing

Study Habits: Probing Modern Attempts to Assess Minority Offender Disproportionality

Oregon, Washington and Utah have recently taken empirical steps to assess the extent to which minorities are overrepresented in their respective criminal justice systems and to seek out the root causes of any overrepresentation observed. Davies contrasts and critiques the disparate analytical approaches utilized by these states and offers some thoughts about how people might improve the chances of success of future similar efforts

Sporting a new role: stadia and the real estate market

There has been a favourable shift in UK urban policy towards the use of sporting infrastructure as a catalyst for rejuvenating declining areas. Despite this recent trend, evidence to support the notion that stadia can underpin regeneration goals is highly variable. This paper uses a case study of the City of Manchester Stadium and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff to examine the impact of stadia construction on the real estate market, an area of economic development that has been significantly under-researched, yet which forms an integral part of the regeneration process. It concludes by arguing that a more comprehensive understanding of the role of stadia in the regeneration process is required if policy makers are to justify future and sustained public investment in sportrelated infrastructure, especially given the significant investment that is planned for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.</p

The age related prevalence of aggression and self-injury in persons with an intellectual disability: A review

The aim of this study was to analyse statistically published data regarding the age related prevalence of aggression and self-injury in persons with intellectual disability. Studies including prevalence data for aggression and/or self-injury broken down by age band were identified and relative risk analyses conducted to generate indices of age related change. Despite conflicting results, the analysis conducted on included studies considered to be the most methodologically robust indicated that the relative risk of self-injury, and to a lesser extent aggression, increased with age until mid-adulthood, with some indication of a curvilinear relationship for self-injury. These conclusions have implications for the understanding of the development of different forms of challenging behavior and the importance of early intervention strategies

Probing the Low Surface Brightness Dwarf Galaxy Population of the Virgo Cluster

We have used public data from the Next Generation Virgo Survey (NGVS) to investigate the dwarf galaxy population of the Virgo cluster beyond what has previously been discovered. We initially mask and smooth the data, and then use the object detection algorithm Sextractor to make our initial dwarf galaxy selection. All candidates are then visually inspected to remove artefacts and duplicates. We derive Sextractor parameters to best select low surface brightness galaxies using g band central surface brightness values of 22.5 to 26.0 mag sq arc sec and exponential scale lengths of 3.0 - 10.0 arc sec to identify 443 cluster dwarf galaxies - 303 of which are new detections. These new detections have a surface density that decreases with radius from the cluster centre. We also apply our selection algorithm to 'background', non-cluster, fields and find zero detections. In combination, this leads us to believe that we have isolated a cluster dwarf galaxy population. The range of objects we are able to detect is limited because smaller scale sized galaxies are confused with the background, while larger galaxies are split into numerous smaller objects by the detection algorithm. Using data from previous surveys combined with our data, we find a faint end slope to the luminosity function of -1.35+/-0.03, which does not significantly differ to what has previously been found for the Virgo cluster, but is a little steeper than the slope for field galaxies. There is no evidence for a faint end slope steep enough to correspond with galaxy formation models, unless those models invoke either strong feedback processes or use warm dark matter.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Approximating Data with weighted smoothing Splines

Given a data set (t_i, y_i), i=1,..., n with the t_i in [0,1] non-parametric regression is concerned with the problem of specifying a suitable function f_n:[0,1] -> R such that the data can be reasonably approximated by the points (t_i, f_n(t_i)), i=1,..., n. If a data set exhibits large variations in local behaviour, for example large peaks as in spectroscopy data, then the method must be able to adapt to the local changes in smoothness. Whilst many methods are able to accomplish this they are less successful at adapting derivatives. In this paper we show how the goal of local adaptivity of the function and its first and second derivatives can be attained in a simple manner using weighted smoothing splines. A residual based concept of approximation is used which forces local adaptivity of the regression function together with a global regularization which makes the function as smooth as possible subject to the approximation constraints

Trial factors for the look elsewhere effect in high energy physics

When searching for a new resonance somewhere in a possible mass range, the significance of observing a local excess of events must take into account the probability of observing such an excess anywhere in the range. This is the so called "look elsewhere effect". The effect can be quantified in terms of a trial factor, which is the ratio between the probability of observing the excess at some fixed mass point, to the probability of observing it anywhere in the range. We propose a simple and fast procedure for estimating the trial factor, based on earlier results by Davies. We show that asymptotically, the trial factor grows linearly with the (fixed mass) significance

Parametric dictionary design for sparse coding

Abstract—This paper introduces a new dictionary design method for sparse coding of a class of signals. It has been shown that one can sparsely approximate some natural signals using an overcomplete set of parametric functions, e.g. [1], [2]. A problem in using these parametric dictionaries is how to choose the parameters. In practice these parameters have been chosen by an expert or through a set of experiments. In the sparse approximation context, it has been shown that an incoherent dictionary is appropriate for the sparse approximation methods. In this paper we first characterize the dictionary design problem, subject to a constraint on the dictionary. Then we briefly explain that equiangular tight frames have minimum coherence. The complexity of the problem does not allow it to be solved exactly. We introduce a practical method to approximately solve it. Some experiments show the advantages one gets by using these dictionaries

Measuring attendance: issues and implications for estimating the impact of free-to-view sports events

A feature of many non-elite sports events, especially those conducted in public places is that they are free-to-view. The article focuses on the methodological issue of estimating spectator attendance at free-to-view events and the consequences of this for impact evaluation. Using empirical data from three case studies, the article outlines various approaches to measuring attendance and discusses the key issues and implications for evaluating free-to-view sports events in the future