Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Texas Law Review
Publication Date
5-1992
Abstract
Wilful ignorance is employed in criminal law primarily, and most controversially, as a mental state that satisfies a required mens rea of knowledge. The practice of considering wilful ignorance a form of, or a substitute for, knowledge first appeared in and has evolved almost exclusively through case law, with little or no critical analysis. Courts now routinely read wilful ignorance-in all its various and sundry formulations-into statutes requiring knowledge, and they usually do so without any attempt to justify the practice as an exercise in statutory interpretation or a search for legislative intent.
Recommended Citation
Robin Charlow,
Wilful Ignorance and Criminal Culpability, 70 Tex. L. Rev. 1351
(1992)
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/754