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Crime

Crime

A crime in a broad sense is an act that violates a political or moral law of any one person or social grouping. In the narrow sense, a crime is a violation of criminal law; in many nations, there are criminal standards of bad behaviour. However, not all violations of the law are considered crimes, for example most traffic violations or breaches of contract.

Definition of crime in general

:This section describes usual criminal classifications applicable at present in Western countries. They may differ significantly with those applicable in other cultures; also, they may differ significantly with earlier practices. Most people who use this word are not "crime" specialists. Generally the word indicates a social concept of the person, where a specific social act is generally considered a deliberate and conscious choice of the choices known to be available to the user of the word. For instance, historically left-handedness, epileptic fits and emotional tantrums have been considered "crimes".

General rules

A crime can be the action of violating or breaking a law. According to Western jurisprudence, there must be a simultaneous concurrence of both actus reus ("guilty action") and mens rea ("guilty mind") for a crime to have been committed; except in crimes of strict liability. In order for prosecution, some laws require proof of causation, relating the defendant's actions to the criminal event in question. In addition, some laws require that attendant circumstances have occurred, in order for a crime to have occurred. Also, in order for a crime to be prosecuted, corpus delicti (or "proof of a crime") must be established. It may also be a crime to conspire in order to commit other crimes, or helping others to commit crimes (which makes one an accomplice); in some systems the simple association for organizing a crime is punished. The attempt to commit a crime (including attempted murder) may to be punished when the actus reus of the full crime is not completed (in California, USA e.g., the punishment can be half of that for the crime itself [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/pen/654-678.html]).

Trial

It is commonly believed that preconceived notions are dominant in all areas of presumed fact. These notions can be based on ethnicity and skin colour, sectarianism, sexual orientation, gender, apperance, occupation and education. Participants in a criminal trial may make use these biases in order to achieve their own goals. (For example, a prosecutor in a case of child murder may want to have more women with young children on the jury.) Since mistakes can be made by the courts and legal process, many appeal mechanisms are available to most legal decisions. The death penalty, which cannot be corrected after the fact if a mistake has occured, has been on the decline for the past several decades. In general, in most western systems, the definition of a crime requires the existing intention of committing it (voluntas necandi) in the author, therefore it is usually not officially "punished" when this intention is missing or when the author has not a complete mental sanity or is under a certain age. Depending on the level of psychological education of the Law Enforcement groups, some underage defendants (of varying ages around the world) can sometimes be tried "as an adult" because their character is considered adult, whatever the rationale is behind this. In another example, there generally exists an insanity defense: a assumed deviant person may not officially be penally responsible for his or her actions. A defendent who uses with the insanity defense may be judged guilty like a normal criminal. It is less common to succeed with psychiatric condemnation, and then to be "involuntarily committed" to treatment or corrections. See also Corrections.

Reasons

Crimes are viewed as offenses against society, and as such are punished by the state. They can be scholastically distinguished, depending on the passive subject of the crime (the victim), or on the offended interest, in crimes against:
- Personality of the State
- Rights of the citizen
- Public administration
- Administration of justice
- Religious sentiment and the pity for dead
- Public order
- Public faith
- Public economy, industry and commerce
- Public morality
- Person and honour
- Patrimony Or they can be distinguished depending on the related punishment (then, on the degree of offense that the forbidden behaviour caused), in delicts and violations. The definition of a crime generally reflects the current attitudes prevalent in a society. For example, possession of drugs was not always a crime, while the Prohibition Era made alcohol illegal.

Classification

Crimes can be divided into several (overlapping) categories: computer offenses[http://news.pc-news.org/2005/08/10/microsoft_to_fight_crime_with_spammers_money/], crimes against persons, crimes against property, crimes against state security, drug offenses, sexual offenses, and weapon offenses. Crimes are also be grouped by severity, some common categorical terms being: felonies, indictable offenses, misdemeanors, and summary offences. For convenience, infractions are also usually incuded in such lists, although they are not subject of the criminal law, but rather of the civil law. An inchoate offense is a planned or attempted crime, which the offender was not able to carry out prior to arrest. The following are crimes in many jurisdictions:

Aiding and abetting

It may be a crime to aid someone else in committing a crime, or induce him or her to commit one.

Study

Matters related to criminal behavior in society are studied in the field of sociology in the sub-field of criminology, and a person who studies this is called a criminologist. The mental state and acuity of criminals is assessed by psychologists, especially in cases wherein the insanity defense is being utilized. The study of crime, in general, across a number of functional diciplines is often known as crime science. This draws on statistics, environmental design, forensics, policing, sociology and other sciences to analyse the crimes, rather than the offenders, and provides ways and means to prevent, detect and solve crimes.

History

The first civilizations had codes of law, though these codes were not always recorded. The first known written codes were written by the ancient Sumerians, and it was probably their king Ur-Nammu (reigning on Ur in the 21st century BC) the first legislator of which we received a formal system in 32 articles; it has to be recalled that this is not among the eldest laws, since not all the ancient laws are penal rules. In the antiquity, in fact, codes mostly contained both civil and penal rules together. Sumerians however later issued other codes as the one known as "code of Lipit-Istar" (last king of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, Isin - 20th century BC). This code contains some 50 articles and has been reconstructed by the comparison among several sources. In Babylon the code of Esnunna before, and the code of Hammurabi (one of the richest ones of ancient times) after, were used and reflected society's belief that law was derived from the will of the gods. Similarly, some codes of conduct of religious origins or reference have been included in penal codes, forbidden behaviours resulting in real crimes in the states ruled by theocracy even in more recent times. In India, the British had notified 150 tribes such as the Phase Pardhi as criminal in 1871. Though this was repealed in 1952, the criminal stigma still surrounds these groups, and are usually rounded up on suspicion of crime.

Natural law theory

An alternative view of crime is derived from the theory of natural law. In this view, crime is the violation of individual rights. Since rights are considered as natural, rather than man-made, what constitutes a crime is also natural, in contrast to laws, which are man-made. Adam Smith illustrates this view, saying a smuggler would be an excellent citizen, "had not the laws of his country made that a crime which nature never meant to be so." Natural law theory thus distinguishes between criminality and illegality, the former being derived from human nature, the latter being derived from the interests of those in power. The two concepts are sometimes expressed with the phrases "malum in se" and "malum prohibitum". This view leads to a seeming paradox, that an act can be illegal that is no crime, while a criminal act could be perfectly legal. Many Enlightenment thinkers such as Adam Smith and the American Founding Fathers subscribed to this view to some extent, and it remains influential among so-called classical liberals and libertarians. A crime malum in se is argued to be inherently criminal; whereas a crime malum prohibitum is argued to be criminal only because the law has decreed it so.

Other uses of the word worldwide

In other cultures (and legal systems) the word crime is used specifically to designate a homicide (the killing of a human being by another). The use of the word crime in any other situations is perceived merely as a means to emphasise the gravity of the specific offence to the law (such as in aggravating circumstances).

External links

- [http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_tot_cri Crime incidence by country] Category:Criminal law
- ja:犯罪 simple:Crime

Law

:This article is about law in society. For other possible meanings, see law (disambiguation). Law (a loanword from Old Norse lag), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who do not follow the established rules of conduct. Law is typically administered through a system of courts, in which judges hear disputes between parties and apply a set of rules in order to provide an outcome that is just and fair. The manner in which law is administered is known as a legal system, which typically has developed through tradition in each country. Legal practitioners, most often, must be professionally trained in the law before they are permitted to advocate for a party in a court of law, draft legal documents, or give legal advice.

Legal traditions

There are generally four broad legal traditions that are practiced in the world today.

Civil law

The Civilian system of law is a codified law that sets out a comprehensive system of rules that are applied and interpreted by judges. It is by and large the most commonly practiced system of law in the world, with almost 60 % of the world's population living in a country ruled on the civilian system. The most important difference to common law is that normally, only legislative enactments are considered to be legally binding, but not precedent cases. However, as a practical matter, courts normally follow their previous decisions. Furthermore, in some civil law systems (e.g. in Germany), the writings of legal scholars have considerable influence on the courts. In most jurisdictions the core areas of private law are codified in the form of a civil code, but in some, like Scotland it remains uncodified. The civil law system has its origins in Roman law, which was adopted by scholars and courts from the late middle ages onwards. Most modern systems go back to the 19th century codification movement. The civil codes of many, particularly Latin countries and former French and Spanish colonies closely trail the Code de Napoléon in some fashion. However, this is not true for most Central and Eastern European, Scandinavian and East Asian countries. Notably, the German BGB was developed from Roman law with reference to German legal tradition. The importance of the Code Napoléon should also not be overemphasized as it covers only the core areas of private law, while other codes and statutes govern fields such as corporate law, administrative law, tax law and constitutional law.

Common law

The Common law is an Anglo-Saxon legal tradition, based on unwritten laws developed through judicial decisions that create binding precedent. The common law system is currently in practice in Australia, Canada (excluding Quebec), United Kingdom, and the United States (excluding Louisiana). In addition to these countries several others have adapted the common law system into a mixed system. For example, India and Nigera operate largely on a common law system but incorporate a good deal of customary law and religious law.

Customary law

Customary law are systems of law that has evolved largely on their own within a given country and have been adapted to meet the needs of the particular culture. Note that customary law may also be relevant within jurisdictions following another legal tradition in fields or subfields of law where no legislative enactment exists. For example, in Austria, scholars of private law often claim that customary law continues to exist, whereas public law scholars dispute this claim. (In any case, it is hard to find any practically relevant examples.)

Religious law

Many countries base their system of law on religious tenants. The most dominant system of this form of law is Muslim law (or "Sharia") which is a codified law that is found within the Koran. These laws deal primarily with the personal rights and dispute resolution between individuals. It is used in some Middle Eastern nations; such as in the Iran and Saudi Arabia. On a smaller level there are still regions of the world that practice canon law, which is followed by Catholics and Anglicans, and a similar legal system is used by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The same can be said for Jewish law (halakha or halacha), which is followed by Orthodox and Conservative Jews, in substantially different forms.

Bodies of law

In the broadest sense, bodies of law can be subdivided on the basis of who the parties to an action are. It is frequent that practiced fields of law overlap into several of these bodies of law.

Private law

The area of private law in a legal system concerns law that oversees disputes between private individuals. This area is, to a large extent, the most comprehensive area of law, dealing with all non-criminal harm one person does to another.

Public law

The area of public law, in a general sense, is the law in a given legal system that concerns disputes between the government and private individuals residing within the country. The state can bring actions against people for criminal acts, as well as breach of regulatory laws. Equally, individuals can bring actions against the government for harm it has done. This includes grounds on the basis of a breach of regulations, legislate on matters beyond their competence, or violation of an individuals rights. These last two points are often protected under a countries’ constitution.

Procedural law

Procedural law concerns the areas of law that regulate how all actions are dealt with. This includes who can have access to the court system, how complaints are submitted, and what are the rights of the parties involved. Procedural law is often known as "adjective" law as it is the law that concern how other laws are to be applied. Typically, this is broadly covered by a government’s civil and criminal procedure rules. But equally this includes the law of evidence which determines what means are used to prove facts, as well as, the law regarding remedies.

International law

International law governs the relations between states, or between citizens of different states, or international organizations. Its two primary sources are customary law and treaties.

Philosophy of law

Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy and jurisprudence which studies basic questions about law and legal systems, such as "what is the law?", "what are the criteria for legal validity?", "what is the relationship between law and morality?", and many other similar questions. In the western tradition there are several schools of thought on the philosophical basis of law. First, there is natural law, which attempts to describe law as an inherent quality in humans that is derived from natures. Second, there is the positivism which believes that law is a purely human-made construct that society uses to maintain social order. Third, there is legal realism which believes that law is an arbitrary set of rules that are largely established through the tastes and preferences of judges.

Anthropology of law

:See main discussion at Honour Law has an anthropological dimension. It has been recognized from Montesquieu to the present that law is shaped by the kind of society in which it is practised. One continuum into which various societies can be placed contrasts the "culture of law" with the "culture of honour". In order to have a culture of law, people must dwell in a society where a government exists whose authority is hard to evade and generally recognised as legitimate. People take their grievances before the government and its agents, who arbitrate disputes and enforce penalties. This behaviour is contrasted with the culture of honour, where respect for persons and groups stems from fear of the revenge they may exact if their person, property, or prerogatives are not respected. Cultures of law must be maintained. They can be eroded by declining respect for the law, achieved either by weak government unable to wield its authority, or by burdensome restrictions that attempt to forbid behaviour prevalent in the culture or in some subculture of the society. When a culture of law declines, there is a possibility that an culture of honor will arise in its place.
History

Practice of law
Practice of law is typically overseen by either a government organization or independent regulating body such as a bar association or barrister society. To practice law – i.e. appear in front of a judge on behalf of someone, draft legal documents, etc. – the practitioner must be certified by the regulating body. This usually entails a two or three year program at a university’s faculty of law or a law school, followed by an entrance examination (eg. bar admissions). Once accredited, a legal practitioners will often work in law firm, as well as in government, a private corporation, or even work as sole practitioner. A significant component to the practice of law in the common law tradition involves legal research in order to determine the current state of the law. This usually entails exploring case reporters, legal periodicals, and legislation.
See also

- Law topics overview
- List of areas of law
- List of legal topics
- List of legal terms
- List of jurists
- List of legal abbreviations
- List of case law lists
- List of law firms
Further reading

- Cheyenne Way: Conflict & Case Law in Primitive Jurisprudence, Karl N. Llewellyn and E. Adamson Hoebel, University of Oklahoma Press, 1983, trade paperback, 374 pages, ISBN 0806118555
- The Bilingual LSP Dictionary. Principles and Practice for Legal language, Sandro Nielsen, Gunter Narr Verlag 1994.
- [http://browse.addall.com/Browse/Author/2088479-1 Other books by Karl N. Llewellyn]
- David, René, and John E. C. Brierley. Major Legal Systems in the World Today: An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Law. 3d ed. London: Stevens, 1985 (ISBN 0420473408).
External links

- [http://www.legalmatch.com LegalMatch] Legal Resource
- [http://ausicl.com The Australian Institute of Comparative Legal Systems]
- [http://www.lpig.org Law and Policy Institutions]
- [http://www.llbee.com/news.php?p=news Laws External Education- Legal News By Subject]
- [http://www.4lawschool.com 4LawSchool- Legal Reference]
- [http://ww3.definitions-legal.com:8567/ Law, Legal Definitions & Reference]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1996-3/law.htm Essentials of Law-Related Education. ERIC Digest.]
- [http://www.law.cornell.edu LII - Topical overviews, US Supreme Court decisions, US Code (Acts of Congress)]
- [http://www.worldlii.org WorldLII - The World Legal Information Institute]
- [http://www.lawmoose.com LawMoose Legal Reference Library]
- [http://legallinks.jenkinslaw.org Legal Research Links]
- [http://www.findlaw.com FindLaw]
- [http://ausicl.com The Australian Institute of Comparative Legal Systems]
- [http://www.nolo.com/glossary.cfm Everybody's Legal Glossary] - From Nolo
- [http://www.alllaw.com/ AllLaw]
- [http://legal.wikicities.com/ WikiCities Legal Site]
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-ideology/ Law and Ideology]
- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-language/ Law and Language]
- [http://en.jurispedia.org/ The shared law] in Jurispedia
- [http://www.avocatura.com Romanian Law]
- [http://www.thedailylaw.com Daily Law news]
- [http://members.fortunecity.com/victorcauchi/lex/lexindex.htm Laws of Malta] Chapter summaries and a general Glossary of definitions.
- [http://LawyerIntl.com LawyerIntl.com] Legal Resource and Law Dictionary
- [http://LawGuru.com LawGuru.com] Legal Portal
- [http://forumprawne.org Prawo i porady prawne] - web discussion board about Polish law Category:Core issues in ethics ja:法 (法学) simple:Law th:กฎหมาย

Traffic

In many parts of the world traffic is generally organized, flowing in lanes of travel for a particular direction, with interchanges, traffic signals, or signage at intersections to facilitate the orderly and timely flow of traffic. Traffic can be separated into vehicular, non-vehicular (bicycling), and pedestrian classes of traffic. Vehicles of the same class share their speed limits and share easement with one another. Cooperative signaling arrangements can also be made with representatives of other classes of traffic. Organized traffic typically reduces travel time. Though vehicles wait at some intersections, wait time at others is much shorter. Organized traffic degenerates to disorganized traffic with an unexpected occurrence, be it road construction, an accident, or obstructions in the road such as an animal, debris, or other objects. On particularly busy freeways, a disruption can persist until traffic thins. William Beaty observed persistent disruptions and named the phenomenon traffic waves. Simulations of organized traffic frequently involve queuing theory, stochastic processes and equations of mathematical physics applied to traffic flow.

Basic Features

Several countries have very complicated traffic laws and others rely on each driver's common sense. However, some basic features of traffic seem to apply to most cultures. Those features are described below.

Directionality

Traffic going in opposite directions should be separated in such a way that they do not block each other's way. The most basic rule regarding this concept is which side of the road should be used for travel. See "Which side?" below for more information. In more sophisticated systems such as large cities, this concept is further extended: some streets are marked as being "one-way", and on those streets all traffic must flow in only one direction. A driver wishing to reach a destination he already passed must use other streets in order to return. Usage of one-way streets, despite the inconveniences it can bring to individual drivers, can greatly improve traffic flow since they usually allow traffic to move faster and tend to simplify intersections.

Lanes

traffic flow with many lanes and heavy traffic.]] When a street is wide enough to accommodate several vehicles travelling side by side, it is usual for traffic to organize itself into "lanes", that is, parallel corridors of traffic. Some roads have one lane for each direction of travel and other have multiple lanes for each direction. Some countries apply pavement markings to clearly indicate the limits of each lane and the direction of travel that it must be used for. In other countries lanes have no markings at all and drivers follow them mostly by instinct rather than visual stimulus. On roads that have multiple lanes going in the same direction, drivers may usually shift amongst lanes as they please, but they must do so in a way that does not cause inconvenience to other drivers. Driving cultures vary greatly on the issue of "lane ownership": in some countries, drivers traveling in a lane will be very protective of their right to travel in it while on others drivers will routinely expect other drivers to shift back and forth.

Right of Way ("who goes first")

Vehicles will often come into conflict with other vehicles because their intended courses of travel intersect, that is, they get in each other's way. The general principle that establishes who has the right to go first is called "right of way". It establishes who has the right to use the conflicting part of the road and who has to wait until the other driver does so. Different countries have different rules that establish who has the right of way, but a common pattern is for one of the roads (usually the smaller road) to have a marking indicating that it should "yield" to drivers on the other road. This can be in the form of a STOP sign, dotted lines painted on the pavement or other devices. Drivers approaching from the road with the STOP sign (or equivalent device) are required to stop before the intersection and only proceed when a breach occurs in the other road's traffic. Some countries also include pedestrian crossings near the STOP signs, and in this case the approaching drivers must also allow the pedestrian to cross the street before advancing. Another way to resolve the right-of-way conflict is to establish a general rule such as the French prioritè-a-droit (priority to the right). This rule establishes that the right of way belongs to the driver who is coming from the right, and the driver coming from the left should yield to him. This rule is unambiguous, but may lead to some counterintuitive situations, such as in T-intersections, where, strangely enough, traffic going straight through the top segment of the T must yield to entering traffic that comes from the vertical leg of the T. parallel parallel, Austria.]] In most modern cities the traffic signal is used to establish the right of way on the busy roads. Its primary idea is to give each road a slice of time in which its traffic may use the intersection in an organized way. The intervals of time assigned for each road may be adjusted to take into account factors such as difference in volume of traffic.

Turning

Vehicles will often want to cease to travel in a straight line and turn onto another road. The vehicle's directional signals (blinkers) are often used as a way to announce one's the intention to turn, thus alerting other drivers. The actual usage of blinkers vary greatly amongst countries. Turning traffic must usually yield the right of way to oncoming traffic - on right-driving countries, vehicles must yield when performing a left turn; on left-driving countries vehicles must yield when performing a right turn. This will usually mean that turning traffic will have to stop in order to wait for a breach to turn, and this might cause inconvenience for vehicles that follow them but do not want to turn. This is why sometimes "protected lanes" for turning are provided, that is, a special lane where vehicles can wait without standing in the way of traffic. On busier intersections where a protected lane would be ineffective or cannot be built, turning may be entirely prohibited, and drivers will be required to "drive around the block" in order to accomplish the turn. On roads with multiple lanes, turning traffic is generally expected to move to the lane closest to the direction they wish to turn. For example, traffic intending to turn right will usually move to the rightmost lane before the intersection. Likewise, left-turning traffic will move to the leftmost lane. Exceptions to this rule may exist where for example the traffic authority decides that the two rightmost lanes will be for turning right, in which case drivers may take whichever of them to turn. On certain parts of the world traffic will adapt to informal patterns that rise naturally rather than by force of authority: for example, in Brazil and elsewhere it is common for drivers to observe (and trust) the turn signals used by other drivers in order to make turns from other lanes. For example if several vehicles on the right lane are all turning right, a vehicle may come from the next-to-right lane and turn right as well, doing so in parallel with the other right-turning vehicles.

Pedestrian Crossings

Brazil, showing a semaphore-controlled pedestrian crossing, and several red lights on several intersections ahead.]] Pedestrians must often cross from one side of a road to the other, and in doing so may come into the way of vehicles traveling on the road. In many places pedestrians are entirely left to look after themselves, that is, they must observe the road and cross when they can see that no traffic will threaten them. Busier cities usually paint "pedestrian crossings", which are strips of the road where pedestrians are expected to cross. The actual appearance of pedestrian crossings varies greatly, but the two most common appearances are: (1) a series of parallel white stripes or (2) two long horizontal white lines. The former is usually preferred, as it stands out more conspicuously against the dark pavement. Some pedestrian crossings also accompany a traffic signal which will make vehicles stop at regular intervals so the pedestrians can cross. Some countries have "intelligent" pedestrian signals, where the pedestrian must push a button in order to assert his intention to cross. The traffic signal will use that information to schedule itself, that is, when no pedestrians are present the signal will never pointlessly cause vehicle traffic to stop. Pedestrian crossings without traffic signals are also common. In this case, the traffic law usually states that the pedestrian has the right of way when crossing, and that vehicles must stop when a pedestrian uses the crossing. Countries and driving cultures vary greatly as to the extent to which this is respected.

Speed

One of the main factors that affect the damage caused by a collision is speed. Therefore, most civilized parts of the world impose speed limits on their roads. Drivers are not supposed to drive at speeds which are higher than the posted limit. To enforce the speed limit, two approaches are generally employed. In the USA it is common for the police to patrol the streets and use special equipment to measure the speed of vehicles, and "pull over" any vehicle found to be in violation of the speed limit. In Brazil and some European countries, there are computerized speed-measuring devices spread throughout the city, which will automatically detect speeding drivers and take a photograph of the license plate, which is later used for applying and mailing the ticket.

Expressways

Brazil, near rush hour, already showing some considerable traffic density.]] In large cities, moving from one part of the city to another by means of ordinary streets and avenues can be time-consuming since traffic usually moves at slow speeds and there are many intersections, stop signs, parked cars, pedestrian crossings, bicycle traffic and other obstacles. Therefore, it has become common practice for larger cities to build expressways, which are large and wide avenues that run for long distances and have no intersections or semaphores. Vehicles wishing to travel over great distances within the city will usually take the expressways in order to save on travel time. When another road must cross an expressway, a bridge will be built if the expressway is a ground-level road, or it will pass under the expressway if it is elevated. Expressways usually have controlled entry and exit, that is, entering and leaving the expressway may only be done at specific points called entries and exits. Vehicles entering the expressway must yield the right of way to the vehicles already traveling on it.

Unorganized traffic

Unorganized traffic occurs in the absence of lanes and signals. Roads do not have lanes, though drivers tend to keep to the appropriate side if the road is wide enough. Drivers frequently overtake other drivers, and obstructions are not uncommon. Intersections have no signals or signage, and a particular road at a busy intersection may be dominant (that is, its traffic flows) until a break in traffic, at which time the dominance shifts to the other road where vehicles are queued. At the intersection of two perpendicular roads, a traffic jam results if four vehicles face each other side-on.

Which side?

According to Brian Lucas, about 34% of the world by country population drives on the left, and 66% keeps right. By roadway miles, about 72% drive on the right.

External links

- [http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html Traffic Waves]
- [http://www.best.bc.ca/ Better Environmentally Sound Transportation]
- [http://www.greenercars.com/indexplus.html Welcome to GreenerCars.com: The online home of ACEEE's Green Book]
- [http://www.sankey.ws/calming.html Traffic calming in a community]
- [http://www.traffic.com Traffic.com] Category:Transportation zh-tw:交通

Epilepsy

Epilepsy (often referred to as a seizure disorder) is a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. The condition is named from the Greek epilepsia ("a taking hold of or seizing"). It is commonly controlled with medication, although surgical methods are used as well.

Causes

All the causes (or etiologies) of epilepsy are not known, but many predisposing factors have been identified, including brain damage resulting from malformations of brain development, head trauma, neurosurgical operations, other penetrating wounds of the brain, brain tumor, high fever, bacterial or viral encephalitis, stroke, intoxication, or acute or inborn disturbances of metabolism. Hereditary or genetic factors also play a role. Epileptic seizures may occur in any person under certain circumstances, including acute illness and drug overdoses, but these provoked seizures are not part of the definition of epilepsy. Epilepsy connotes that an individual has unprovoked seizures which recur over time. In about 50% of all cases, there is no cause for epilepsy that is currently detectable even with state of the art investigations. In about 50% of cases, evidence of a brain injury, scar or malformation is found, to which the epilepsy is attributed. In many, but not all cases, abnormal electrical activity can be detected in the brain with an electroencephalogram (EEG), either during or in between seizures. Some people (especially young children) have seizures when exposed to certain patterns of flashing/flickering lights. This is a special type of reflex epilepsy called photosensitive epilepsy and the seizures themselves are often informally called "Pokemon seizures," after an article was published describing an outbreak of photosensitive seizures due to broadcast of an episode of the popular children's television show Pokemon. While some of the children involved doubtless had photosensitive epilepsy, some investigators believe that the majority of the 12,000 affected in this outbreak actually were having psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. The most common ages of incidence are under the age of 18 and over the age of 65. It has been estimated that about 1% of the population meets the diagnostic criteria for epilepsy at any given time, but some theorize that the prevalence may be much higher in fact. A significant and measurable decline in cognitive function is known to be associated with epilepsy, although it has not been entirely clear to what extent this is due to the epilepsy itself or to the drugs used to treat it. Phenobarbital, in particular, has been shown to decrease IQ and classroom performance when used to treat epilepsy in children; the effects persist after the phenobarbital is stopped. Some newer anti-epileptic drugs are considered by some to have less severe cognitive effects than older drugs. On an individual level, a person's reaction to epileptic seizures and/or anti-epileptic drugs may be idiosyncratic, so it is difficult to predict how a particular person might be affected. Mutations in several genes have been linked to some types of epilepsy. Several genes that code for protein subunits of voltage-gated and ligand-gated ion channels have been associated with forms of generalized epilepsy and infantile seizure syndromes. Several ligand-gated ion channels have been linked to some types of frontal and generalized epilepsies. Epilepsy-related mutations in some non-ion channel genes have also been identified. One interesting finding in animals is that repeated low-level electrical stimulation to some brain sites can lead to permanent increases in seizure susceptibility: in other words, a permanent decrease in seizure "threshold." This phenomenon, known as kindling (by analogy with the use of burning twigs to start a larger fire) was discovered by Dr. Graham Goddard in 1967. Chemical stimulation can also induce seizures; repeated exposures to some pesticides have been shown to induce seizures in both humans and animals. One mechanism proposed for this is called excitotoxicity. The roles of kindling and excitotoxicity, if any, in human epilepsy are currently hotly debated.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of epilepsy requires the presence of recurrent, unprovoked seizures; accordingly, it is usually made based on the medical history. EEG, brain MRI, SPECT, PET, and magnetoencephalography may be useful to discover an etiology for the epilepsy, discover the affected brain region, or classify the epileptic syndrome, but these studies are not useful in making the initial diagnosis. Long-term video-EEG monitoring for epilepsy is the gold standard for diagnosis, but it is not routinely employed owing to its high cost and inconvenience. It is, however, sometimes used to distinguish psychogenic non-epileptic seizures from epilepsy. Convulsive or other seizure-like activity, non-epileptic in origin, can be observed in many other medical conditions, including:
- psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (often wrongly called "pseudoseizures")
- tics
- syncope (fainting)
- narcolepsy
- cataplexy
- parasomnias
- breath-holding spells of childhood
- non-epileptic myoclonus
- hypoglycemia and associated neuroglycopenia
- opsoclonus
- hyperekplexia
- paroxysmal kinesiogenic dyskinesia
- infantile gratification / masturbation (onanism)
- repetitive behaviors Neurologists are often called upon to distinguish among the above diagnoses and epilepsy.

Types of seizure

Epileptic seizures are classified both by their patterns of activity in the brain and their effects on behaviour. In terms of their pattern of activity, seizures may be described as either partial (focal) or generalised. Partial seizures only involve a localised part of the brain, whereas generalised seizures involve the entire cortex. The term 'secondary generalisation' may be used to describe a partial seizure that later spreads to the whole of the cortex and becomes generalised. Partial seizures may be further subdivided into both simple and complex seizures. This refers to the effect of such a seizure on consciousness; simple seizures cause no interruption to consciousness (although they may cause sensory distortions or other sensations), whereas complex seizures interrupt consciousness to varying degrees. This does not necessarily mean that the person experiencing this sort of seizure will fall unconscious (like fainting). For example, a complex partial seizure may involve the unconscious repetition of simple actions, gestures or verbal utterances, or simply a blank stare and apparent unawareness of the occurrence of the seizure, followed by no memory of the seizure. Other patients may report a feeling of tunnel vision or dissociation, which represents a diminishment of awareness without full loss of consciousness. Still other patients can perform complicated actions, such as travel or shopping, while in the midst of a complex partial seizure. The effects of partial seizures can be quite dependent on the area of the brain in which they are active. For example, a partial seizure in areas involved in perception may cause a particular sensory experience (for example, the perception of a scent, music or flashes of light) whereas, when centred in the motor cortex, a partial seizure might cause movement in particular groups of muscles. This type of seizure may also produce particular thoughts or internal visual images or even experiences which may be distinct but not easily described. Seizures centred on the temporal lobes are known to produce mystical or ecstatic experiences in some people. These may result in a misdiagnosis of psychosis or even schizophrenia, if other symptoms of seizure are disregarded and other tests are not performed. Unfortunately for those with epilepsy, anti-psychotic medications prescribed without anti-convulsants in this case can actually lower the seizure threshold further and worsen the symptoms. When the effects of a partial seizure appear as a 'warning sign' before a more serious seizure, they are known as an aura: it is frequently the case that a partial seizure will spread to other parts of the brain and eventually become generalized, resulting in a tonic-clonic convulsion. The subjective experience of an aura, like other partial seizures, will tend to reflect the function of the affected part of the brain. Generalised seizures can be sub-classified into a number of categories, depending on their behavioural effects:
- Absence seizures (sometimes referred to as petit mal seizures) involve an interruption to consciousness where the person experiencing the seizure seems to become vacant and unresponsive for a short period of time (usually up to 30 seconds). Slight muscle twitching may occur.
- Tonic-clonic seizures (sometimes referred to as grand mal seizures), involve an initial contraction of the muscles (tonic phase) which may involve tongue biting, urinary incontinence and the absence of breathing. This is followed by rhythmic muscle contractions (clonic phase). This type of seizure is usually what is referred to when the term 'epileptic fit' is used colloquially.
- Myoclonic seizures involve sporadic muscle contraction and can result in jerky movements of muscles or muscle groups.
- Atonic seizures involve the loss of muscle tone, causing the person to fall to the ground. These are sometimes called 'drop attacks' but should be distinguished from similar looking attacks that may occur in narcolepsy or cataplexy.
- Status epilepticus refers to continuous seizure activity with no recovery between successive tonic-clonic seizures. This is a life-threatening condition and emergency medical assistance should be called immediately if this is suspected. A tonic-clonic seizure lasting longer than 5 minutes (or two minutes longer than a given person's usual seizures) is usually considered grounds for calling the emergency services.
- Epilepsia partialis continua is a rare type of focal motor seizure (hands and face) which recurs every few seconds or minutes for extended periods (days or years). It is usually due to strokes in adults and focal cortical inflammatory processes in children (Rasmussen's encephalitis), possibly caused by chronic viral infections or autoimmune processes.

Seizure Syndromes

It is important to note that seizures are symptoms of specific illnesses, one example being epilepsy. Other diseases that can cause seizures include brain tumors, infection (e.g., encephalitis), traumatic injury to the brain, and metabolic or electrolyte abnormalities. Seizures arising from these conditions are not considered epilepsy because, once the inciting event is removed or alleviated, the seizures stop. There are many different epilepsy syndromes, each presenting with its own unique combination of seizure type, typical age of onset, EEG findings, treatment, and prognosis. Below are some common seizure syndromes:
- Infantile spasms (West syndrome) is associated with brain development abnormalities, tuberous sclerosis, and perinatal insults to the brain. It affects infants (as implied by its name), which by definition is between 30 days to 1 year of life. It carries a poor prognosis such that only 5-10% of children with infantile spasms will develop normal to near-normal function, while more than two-thirds will have severe deficits. The typical seizures are characterized by sudden flexor and extensor spasms of head, trunk, and extremities. The key EEG finding in these patients is a hypsarrythmia, or a high-voltage slow wave with multifocal spikes. The first line treatment for these patients is adrenocorticotropic hormone ([ACTH]] or [[corticotropin) since traditional antiepileptic drugs generally cannot adequately control seizure activity. Vigabatrin is also used in many countries, and is particularly effective when tuberous sclerosis is the cause of seizures.
- Childhood absence epilepsy affects children between the ages of 4 and 12 years of age. These patients have recurrent absence seizures that can occur hundreds of times a day. On EEG, one finds the stereotyped generalized 3 Hz spike and wave discharges. A subset of these patients will also develop generalized tonic-clonic seizures. This condition carries a fairly good prognosis in that these children do not usually show cognitive decline or neurological deficits. First line treatment for pure absence seizures is ethosuximide. If patients do not respond or have mixed seizures along with their absence seizures, then valproic acid can be used.
- Benign focal epilepsy of childhood (Benign Rolandic epilepsy) begins in children between the ages of 4 and 13 years. Apart from their seizure disorder, these patients are otherwise normal. Seizures occur at night and sleep promotes secondary generalization. As such, parents only report generalized seizures because focal manifestations are often subtle and go unnoticed. Between seizures, patients have a stereotyped EEG pattern that includes di- or triphasic sharp waves over the central-midtemporal (Rolandic) regions. Progosnis is uniformly good with seizures disappearing by adolescence. Carbamazepine is the first line treatment, though phenytoin and phenobarbital have also been used with some efficacy.
- Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) begins in patients aged 8 to 20 years. These patients have normal IQ and are otherwise neurologically intact. There is usually a family history of similar seizures. The seizures are morning myoclonic jerks often with generalized tonic-clonic seizures that occur just after waking. EEG readings reveal generalized spikes with 4-6 Hz spike wave discharges and multiple spike discharges. Interestingly, thse patients are often first diagnosed when they have their first generalized tonic-clonic seizure later in life when they experience sleep deprivation (e.g., freshman year in college after staying up late to study for exams). Valproic acid is the first line treatment. This condition is lifelong, thus patients must be taught appropriate sleep hygiene to prevent generalized tonic-clonic seizures.
- Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common epilepsy of adults. In most cases, the epileptogenic region is found in the mesial temporal structures (e.g., the hippocampus, amygdala, and parahippocampal gyrus). Seizures begin in late childhood and adolescence. There is an association with febrile seizures in childhood, and some studies have shown herpes simplex virus (HSV) DNA in these regions, suggesting that perhaps this epilepsy has an infectious etiology. Most of these patients have complex partial seizures often preceded by an aura.
- Frontal lobe epilepsy
- Lennox-Gastaut syndrome

Treatment

Epilepsy is usually treated with medication prescribed by a physician; primary caregivers, neurologists, and neurosurgeons all frequently care for people with epilepsy. In some cases the implantation of a stimulator of the vagus nerve, or a special diet can be helpful. Neurosurgical operations for epilepsy can be palliative, reducing the frequency or severity of seizures; or, in some patients, an operation can be curative.

Responding to a seizure

In most cases, the proper emergency response to a generalized tonic-clonic epileptic seizure is simply to prevent the patient from self-injury by moving him or her away from sharp edges, placing something soft beneath the head, and carefully rolling the person onto his or her side to avoid asphyxiation. Should the person regurgitate, the material should be allowed to drip out the side of the patient's mouth by itself. If the seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes, Emergency Medical Services should be contacted. Prolonged seizures may develop into status epilepticus, a dangerous condition requiring hospitalization and emergency treatment. Objects should never be placed in a person's mouth during a seizure as this could result in injury to the person's mouth or obstruction of the airway. Despite common folklore, it is not possible for a person to swallow their own tongue during a seizure. After a seizure, it is typical for a person to be confused, disoriented, and possibly agitated or sleepy. It is important to stay with the person until this passes; people should not eat or drink until they have returned to their normal level of awareness, and they should not be allowed to wander about unsupervised. Many patients will sleep deeply for a few hours after a seizure; this is not dangerous. In about 50% of people with epilepsy, headaches may occur after a seizure. These headaches share many features with migraines, and respond to the same medications.

Pharmacologic treatment

Some medications can be taken daily in order to prevent seizures altogether or reduce the frequency of their occurence. These are termed "anticonvulsant" or "antiepileptic" drugs (sometimes AEDs). All such drugs have side effects which are idiosyncratic and others which are dose-dependent; it is not possible to predict who will suffer from side effects or at what dose the side effects will appear. Some people with epilepsy will experience a complete remission when treated with an anticonvulsant medication. If this does not occur, the dose of medication may be increased, or another medication may be added to the first. The general strategy is to increase the medication dose until either the seizures are controlled, or until dose-limiting side effects appear; at which point the medication dose is reduced to the highest amount that did not produce undesirable side effects. Serum levels of AEDs can be checked to determine medication compliance and to assess the effects of drug-drug interactions; serum levels are generally not useful to predict anticonvulsant efficacy in an individual patient, though in some cases (such as a seizure flurry) it can be useful to know if the level is very high or very low. If a person's epilepsy cannot be brought under control after adequate trials of two different drugs, that person's epilepsy is generally said to be 'medically refractory.' Various drugs may prevent seizures or reduce seizure frequency: these include carbamazepine (brand name Tegretol), clobezam (Frisium), clonazepam (Klonopin), ethosuximide (Zarontin), felbamate (Felbatol), fosphenytoin (Cerebyx), flurazepam (Dalmane), gabapentin (Neurontin), lamotrigine (Lamictal), levetiracetam (Keppra), oxcarbazepine (Trileptal), mephenytoin (Mesantoin), phenobarbital (Luminal), phenytoin (Dilantin), pregabalin (Lyrica), primidone (Mysoline), tiagabine (Gabitril), topiramate (Topamax), valproate, sodium divalproex (Depakene, Depakote), and vigabatrin (Sabril). Other drugs are commonly used to abort an active seizure or interrupt a seizure flurry; these include diazepam (Valium) and lorazepam (Ativan). Drugs used only in the treatment of refractory status epilepticus include paraldehyde (Paral) and pentobarbital (Nembutal). Bromides were the first of the effective anticonvulsant pure compounds, but are no longer used due to their toxicities and low efficacy.

Surgical Treatment

Surgical treatment can be an option for epilepsy when an underlying brain abnormality, such as a benign tumor or an area of scar tissue (e.g. hippocampal sclerosis) can be identified. The abnormality must be removable by a neurosurgeon. Surgery is usually only offered to patients when their epilepsy has not been controlled by adequate attempts with multiple medications. Before surgery is offered, the medical team performs many tests to assess whether removal of brain tissue will result in unacceptable problems with memory, vision, language or movement, which are controlled by different parts of the brain. Resective surgery, as opposed to palliative, successfully eliminates or significantly reduces seizures in about 80% of the patients who undergo it. Many patients decide not to undergo surgery owing to fear or the uncertainty of having a brain operation. The most common form of resective surgical treatment for epilepsy is to remove a portion of either the right or left temporal lobe, depending on where the seizures are occurring. A study of 48 patients who underwent this operation, anterior temporal lobectomy, between 1965 and 1974 determined the long-term success of the procedure. Of the 48 patients, 21 had had no seizures that caused loss of conciousness since the operation. Three others had been free of seizures for at least 19 years. The rest had either never been completely free of seizures or had died between the time of the surgery and commencement of the study. (Kelley & Theodore, 2005) Palliative surgery for epilepsy is designed to reduce the frequency or severity of seizures. Examples are callosotomy or commissurotomy, which can prevent seizures from generalizing (spreading to involve the entire brain). Since people whose seizures generalize often lose consciousness and fall over backwards, injuring themselves, this can be quite valuable, especially when the seizures cannot be controlled by other means. Resective surgery is on occasion undertaken with the expectation that it will reduce but not eliminate seizures; this would be considered palliative surgery. Hemispherectomy is a drastic operation in which most or all of one half of the cerebral cortex is removed. It is reserved for the most catastrophic epilepsies, such as those due to Rasmussen syndrome. If the surgery is performed on very young patients (2-5 years old), the remaining hemisphere may acquire some rudimentary motor control of the ipsilateral body; in older patients, paralysis results on the side of the body opposite to the part of the brain that was removed. Because of these and other side effects it is usually reserved for patients who have exhausted other treatment options.

Other Treatment

Ketogenic diets may occasionally be effective in controlling some types of epilepsy; although the mechanism behind the effect is not fully understood, shifting of pH towards a metabolic acidosis and alteration of brain metabolism may be involved. Ketogenic diets are high in fat and extremely low in carbohydrates, with intake of fluids often limited. This treatment, originated as early as the 1920s at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, was largely abandoned with the discovery of modern anti-epileptic drugs, but recently has returned to the anti-epileptic treatment arsenal. Ketogenic diets are sometimes prescribed in severe cases where drugs have proven ineffective. There are several downsides to what initially seems a benign therapy, however. The ketogenic diet is not good for the heart or kidneys and medical problems resulting from the diet have been reported. In addition, the diet is extremely unpalatable and few patients are able to tolerate it for any length of time. Since a single potato chip is adequate to break the ketosis, staying on the diet requires either great willpower or perfect control of a person's dietary intake. People fed via gastrostomy or young children who receive all their food in the presence of a caregiver are better candidates. Vagus nerve stimulation is a recently developed form of seizure control which uses an implanted electrical device, similar in size, shape and implant location to a heart pacemaker, which connects to the vagus nerve in the neck. Once in place the device can be set to emit electronic pulses, stimulating the vagus nerve at pre-set intervals and milliamp levels. Treatment studies have shown that approximately 50% of people treated in this fashion will show significant seizure reduction. Some people with epilepsy receive a special dog which has the rare talent of sensing the onset of a seizure and is trained to alert the human so they can reach a safe location before their seizure puts them in danger. Other [http://www.keppra.com/pc/other_resources/canineAssistants.aspx epilepsy care dogs] do not sense seizures, but serve as companions and guardians during the loss of consciousness accompanying a seizure.

History and Stigma

In the past, epilepsy was associated with religious experiences and even demonic possession. Apocryphally, epilepsy has been called the "Sacred Disease" because people thought that epileptic seizures were a form of attack by demons, or that the visions experienced by persons with epilepsy were sent by the gods. However, in many cultures, persons with epilepsy have been stigmatized, shunned, or even imprisoned; in the Salpêtrière, the birthplace of modern neurology, Jean-Martin Charcot found people with epilepsy side-by-side with the mentally retarded, chronic syphilitics, and the criminally insane. In Tanzania to this day, onlookers will not touch a person having an epileptic fit, owing to fear of demons, even if the seizure causes the person to fall into the cooking fire (the flickering light from fire may have provoked the seizure in the first place.) In ancient rome epilepsy was known as the Morbus Comitialis and was seen as a curse from the gods. Stigma continues to this day, in both the public and private spheres, but polls suggest it is generally decreasing with time, at least in the developed world; Hippocrates remarked that epilepsy would be considered divine only until it was understood [http://quote.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocrates].

Legal implications

Most people diagnosed with epilepsy are forbidden by their local laws from operating vehicles; seizure victims have caused many fatal car accidents and plane crashes. However, there are usually special exceptions for those who can prove that they have stabilized their condition for a period of time with the help of appropriate medication. Those few whose seizures do not cause impairment of consciousness, or whose seizures only arise from sleep, may be exempt from such restrictions, depending on local laws. There is an ongoing debate in bioethics over who should bear the burden of ensuring that an epilepsy patient does not drive a car or fly an airplane. In the U.S., the majority of the 50 states place the burden on patients to report their condition to appropriate licensing authorities so that their privileges can be revoked where appropriate. A minority of states (including California) place the burden on the patient's physician. Empirical studies have demonstrated that such laws may deter epilepsy patients from seeking treatment from a physician for their condition, because they fear the loss of their driving privileges. In the UK, it is the responsibility of the patient to inform the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) if they have epilepsy. The rules are quite complex, but in summary, those continuing to have seizures or who are within 6 months of medication change may have their license revoked. A doctor who becomes aware that a patient with uncontrolled epilepsy is continuing to drive has, after reminding the patient of their responsibility, a duty to break confidentiality and inform the DVLA. The doctor should advise the patient of the disclosure and the reasons why their failure to notify the agency obliged the doctor to act.

Important investigators of epilepsy

- Galen
- Jean-Martin Charcot
- John Hughlings Jackson
- Hans Berger
- Herbert Jasper
- Wilder Penfield
- H. Houston Merritt

References

# PMID 11235034 # PMID 15955959 # PMID 16006194

External links

Worldwide non-profit organizations

- [http://www.epilepsy.org The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) website], supporting research and patient care worldwide.
- [http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/ The Epilepsy Foundation], a non-profit organization with an excellent patient-oriented website.
- [http://www.epilepsy.com Epilepsy.com] - Epilepsy information for patients, families and caregivers living with epilepsy. Supported by a 501c not-for-profit affiliated with universities, drug and device manufacturers.

Regional epilepsy organizations

- [http://www.nyuepilepsy.org The NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is the largest epilepsy center in the United States] - [http://www.nyuepilepsy.org nyuepilepsy.org]
- [http://www.nyufaces.org Finding A Cure for Epilepsy and Seizures (faces)] - [http://www.nyufaces.org nyufaces.org]
- [http://www.epinet.org.au The Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria] A comprehensive site for people living with epilepsy.
- [http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/firstaid.html What to do when someone has a seizure] - Information from Epilepsy Action
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/epilepsy.htm Epilepsy Information Page] (USA)
- [http://www.epilepsyaustralia.org Epilepsy Australia] Where to go for help with epilepsy in Australia.
- [http://www.epilepsy.org.au Epilepsy Association of Australia] Information and education, seizure first aid.
- [http://www.headlines.org.au Australian Headlines, online epilepsy magazine] News, opinion, research, personal experiences
- [http://www.eqi.org.au/ Epilepsy Queensland]
- [http://epilepsy.ca/eng/mainSet.html Epilepsy Canada]
- [http://www.getontheteam.org.au Get on the Team Campaign] Epilepsy Awareness Campaign featuring high profile ambassadors. Category:Neurology ja:てんかん

Tantrum

A tantrum is an emotional outburst where higher brain functions are unable to stop the emotional expression of the lower (emotional and physical) brain functions. Usually the tantrum is shown by children of the ages of 3-6 but sometimes 7-9; this is a very clear case of emotional disinhibition caused by immature forebrain development. It is not just children that throw tantrums, however, with celebrity tantrums being very common also. Because a tantrum is most often associated with children, it is often also colloquially known as a dummy spit, a reference to a human baby spitting out their dummy (pacifier) because it is unhappy. In many places it can be a very effective political and social tool, especially for adults, such as police (Good cop/bad cop scenarios), custodial officers, childcare workers, teachers, therapists and politicians. Most people might show their tantrum when they are upset or bothered. These people may have learnt consciously or unconsciously that they will probabilistically achieve their goal. This statistical probabilities material is consciously used by actuarialists such as Cognitive Behavioural Psychologists, to "mold" a client's behaviour. There are several goals in a tantrum, which may or may not be the "reward(s)" that are attempted by the person. To many outsiders or unskilled people, these goals may seem irrational, unreasonable, inappropriate, criminal, unethical, immoral, or the work of some spiritual force(s). To people familiar with or trained to recognize the psychological causes of such behavior, however, there is a clear emotional, cognitive behavioural and biochemical correlates to each and every tantrum. Since there are chemical corellates to some tantrums, sometime medication can minimize but not always prevent tantrums. This is especially so for those people with Traumatic Brain Injury, which commonly affects the forebrain. The main ways to temporarily damage the forebrain are to poison it with a mood depressant (such as alcohol) or brain-fatigue by lack of sleep. To most untrained people, a tantrum seems to be an irrational outburst, where the person may seem to be inconsolable, even when given what they want. It can be categorized by an out of control, irrational fit of crying, screaming, defying, resisting every attempt at pacification in which even physical control is lost. The person may not stand or sit on their own. It differs from a normal fit in that even when the "goal" of the person is met, they are not calmed. Tantrums are such a common and powerful communication tool between people that some schools of acting demand these as an essential part of their training. Most good script-writers use the tantrum to emphasize important parts of their productions onto the audiences.

Other names

- Dummy spit
- Tanny spit (Irish)
- Hissy fit Category:Sociology

Concurrence

For other uses, see concurrency. ---- Concurrence, Contemporaneity and Simultaneity are legal terms, from Western jurisprudence, referring to the apparent need to prove the simultaneous occurrence of both actus reus ("guilty action") and mens rea ("guilty mind"), to constitute a crime; except in crimes of strict liability. In theory, if the actus reus does not coincide in point of time with the mens rea then no crime has been committed.

Discussion

Suppose for example that, by accident while driving, the accused injures a pedestrian. Aware of the collision, the accused rushes from the car only to find that the victim is a hated enemy. At this point, the accused literally jumps up and down with joy proclaiming how pleased he or she is to have caused this injury. The conventional rule is that no crime has been committed. The actus reus is complete and no rule of ratification applies in the Criminal Law, i.e. whereas in the Law of Agency a Principal may retrospectively adopt a transaction as if he or she had originally authorised the Agent to conclude an agreement with the Third Party and so acquires liability under that agreement, an alleged criminal cannot retrospectively adopt an actus reus and acquire guilt. To be convicted, the accused must have formed the mens rea either before or during the commission of the actus reus and, in the vast majority of cases, this rule works without difficulty.

The problem

Not all events are limited to a particular moment in time. The normal physical rules of cause and effect may see a series of interlocking circumstances conspire to cause a particular injury. If the facts of the example above are slightly changed so that the accident occurs at night at a sharp bend on a very quiet country road. When the driver sees the victim lying in the road he simply leaves the unconscious person where he fell. Some hours later, when a second car innocently comes around the corner and kills the victim, the first driver is happily asleep in his bed. Thus, he argues that, at the time of the death, he had no mens rea and so cannot be guilty of homicide. This argument fails because of the so-called Single Transaction Principle

Single transaction principle

Not all acts forming the basis of an actus reus are single, unconnected events. Everything happens in a context. Hence, in the example given, the victim would not have died if the first driver had not abandoned him at a dangerous point on the road. The law will treat the actus reus as having started with the accidental injury and ended with the death, i.e. the sequence of events is so inevitably linked that it can all be viewed as a single transaction. So long as the requisite mens rea is formed before the sequence begins or during the sequence (and before it ends), the accused will be liable. A different way of justifying liability in this type of situation would be to redefine the actus reus as an omission and to base the liability on the failure to move the injured man, reckless or wilfully blind as to whether he might subsequently be injured as a result. But not every factual sequence can be so conveniently recast as an omission. Suppose, for example, that A sees his enemy, B, and decides to attack him. A picks up a stick and begins to chase B who runs into a hotel, up the stairs and into a room, locking the door behind him. A hammers at the door, shouting threats. A then sees a fire axe in a glass case nearby. He tells B that he is going for the axe and will break down the door. When A walks away, B is so terrified that he jumps out of the window and breaks his legs. Even though A might not have had an immediate intention to injure B at the critical moment when B jumped, the fear was inspired with an appropriate intention and B would not have been desperate enough to jump had it not been for that fear. [It is fair to exclude liability when B's fear is entirely unreasonable given A's behaviour because B's self-induced injury will break the chain of causation

Mens rea

The mens rea is the Latin term for "guilty mind" used in the criminal law. The standard common law test of criminal liability is usually expressed in the Latin phrase, actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, which means that "the act will not make a person guilty unless the mind is also guilty". Thus, in jurisdictions with due process, there must be an actus reus accompanied by some level of mens rea to constitute the crime with which the defendant is charged (see the technical requirement of concurrence). The exception is strict liability crimes (in the civil law, it is not usually necessary to prove a subjective mental element to establish liability, say for breach of contract or a tort, although if intentally committed, this may increase the measure of damages payable to compensate the Plaintiff). There are three general classes of mens rea (the words used may vary from one state to another and from one definition to another) but the substance is: #intention; #recklessness sometimes termed wilful blindness which may have a different interpretation in the United States; or #criminal negligence.

Concepts

Each of these classes depends on the presence or absence of foresight and a second element usually expressed as "desire". In this context, the word "desire" is dispassionate. For instance, one may visit a dentist for treatment, recognising that this is necessary, yet having little or no "desire" to do so. Nevertheless, the requisite intentionality is present in the decision to seek treatment because one desires what is necessary no matter that it may be unpleasant. Hence, the essence of this second element is that, whether subjectively or objectively, the accused wishes or aims to cause the foreseen consequences to occur.
- Intention is where the accused has a clear foresight of the consequences of his or her actions and desires those consequences to occur.
- Recklessness is where the accused foresees that particular consequences may occur and proceeds with the given conduct not caring whether those consequences actually occur or not.
- Criminal negligence occurs where the accused did not actually foresee that the particular consequences would flow from his or her actions but the reasonable man, in the same circumstances, would have foreseen those consequences. As an example of the three types of mens rea, consider a person who walks into a room which is in darkness:
- (a) knowing that it is full of valuable china objects, his objective or aim being to cause the maximum amount of damage;
- (b) knowing that it is full of valuable objects, but hoping to walk quickly to the centre of the room where the main light switch is located without damaging anything;
- (c) without being aware of there being anything specifically valuable in the room, not knowing where the light switch is, and hoping to find somewhere quiet to sit. In each of these three instances, damaging some of the china objects would be intentional, reckless, and criminally negligent if the reasonable man would have taken more care when entering a room with which he was not familiar.

Subjective and objective tests

The test for the existence of mens rea may be: :(a) subjective where the court must be satisfied that the accused actually had the requisite mental element present in his or her mind at the relevant time (see concurrence); :(b) objective where the requisite mens rea element is imputed to the accused on the basis that the reasonable person would have had the mental element in the same circumstances; or :(c) hybrid where the test is both subjective and objective. The court will have little difficulty in establishing mens rea if there is actual evidence, say because the accused made an admissible admission. This would satisfy a subjective test. But a significant proportion of those accused make no such admissions. Hence, some degree of objectivity must be brought to bear as the basis upon which to impute the necessary component(s). It is always reasonable to assume that people of ordinary intelligence are aware of their physical surroundings and of the ordinary laws of cause and effect (see causation). Thus, when a person plans what to do and what not to do, he or she will understand the range of likely outcomes from given behaviour on a sliding scale from inevitable, probable, possible to improbable. The more an outcome shades towards the inevitable end of the scale, the more likely it is that the accused both foresaw and desired it, and, therefore, the safer it is to impute intention. If there is clear subjective evidence that the accused did not have foresight, but a reasonable person would have, the hybrid test may find criminal negligence. In terms of the burden of proof, the requirement is that a jury must have a high degree of certainty before convicting. It is this reasoning that justifies the defences of infancy, and of lack of mental capacity under the McNaghten Rules and the various statutes defining mental illness as an excuse. Self-evidently, if there is an irrebuttable presumption of doli incapax or the accused did not have sufficient understanding of the nature and quality of his or her actions, the requisite mens rea is absent no matter what degree of probability might otherwise have been present. For these purposes, therefore, where the relevant statutes are silent and it is for the common law to form the basis of potential liability, the reasonable person must be endowed with the same intellectual and physical qualities as the accused, and the test must be whether an accused with these specific attributes would have had the requisite foresight and desire. In English law, s8 Criminal Justice Act 1967 provides a statutory framework within which mens rea is assessed. It states: :A court or jury, in determining whether a person has committed an offence, ::(a) shall not be bound in law to infer that he intended or foresaw a result of his actions by reasons only of its being a natural and probable consequence of those actions; but ::(b) shall decide whether he did intend or foresee that result by reference to all the evidence, drawing such inferences from the evidence as appear proper in the circumstances. Under s8(b) therefore, the jury is allowed a wide lattitude in applying a hybrid test to impute intention or foresight (for the purposes of recklessness) on the basis of all the evidence.

The relevance of motive

One of the mental components often raised in issue is that of motive. If the accused admits to having a motive consistent with the elements of foresight and desire, this will add to the level of probability that the actual outcome was intended (it makes the prosecution case more credible). But if there is clear evidence that the accused had a different motive, this may decrease the probability that he or she desired the actual outcome. In such a situation, the motive may become subjective evidence that the accused did not intend, but was reckless or wilfully blind. But, motive cannot be a defence. Say for example, an accused breaks into a laboratory used for the testing of pharmaceuticals on animals, the question of guilt is determined by the presence of an actus reus, i.e. entry without consent and damage to property, and a mens rea, i.e. intention to enter and cause the damage. That the accused might have had a clearly articulated political motive to protest such testing does not go to liability. If it has any relevance, it may be addressed in the sentencing part of the trial when the court considers what punishment, if any, it would be appropriate to impose given the degree of fault or blameworthiness in the accused.

Intention

:For the full article on intention (criminal)

Recklessness or wilful blindness

:For the full article on recklessness (criminal) In such cases, there is clear subjective evidence that the accused foresaw but did not desire the particular outcome. Hence, when the accused failed to stop the given behaviour, he or she is taking the risk of causing the given loss or damage. Thus, there is always some degree of intention subsumed within recklessness. During the course of the conduct, the accused foresees that he or she may be putting another at risk of injury. A choice must be made at that point in time. By deciding to proceed, the accused actually intends the other to be exposed to the risk of that injury. The greater the probability of that risk maturing into the foreseen injury, the greater the degree of wilfulness: a factor that will be reflected in the sentencing.
Criminal negligence
:For the full article on criminal negligence Here, the test is both subjective and objective. There is credible subjective evidence that the particular accused neither foresaw nor desired the particular outcome, thus potentially excluding both intention and recklessness. But a reasonable man with the same abilities and skills as the accused would have foreseen and taken precautions to prevent the loss and damage being sustained. Only a small percentage of offences are defined with this mens rea requirement. Most legislatures prefer to base liability on either intention or recklessness and, faced with the need to establish recklessness as the default mens rea for guilt, those practising in most legal systems rely heavily on objective tests to establish the minimum requirment of foresight for recklessness.

Mens rea under the American Law Institute Model Penal Code

Prior to the 1960s, mens rea was a very slippery, vague and confused concept. Since then, the formulation of mens rea set forth in the Model Penal Code has been highly influential throughout North America in clarifying the discussion of the different levels of mens rea. The four levels of mens rea set forth in the MPC are: (1) Purposely - Express purpose to commit a specific crime against a particular person; for example, to shoot an arrow at someone and hit him. (2) Knowingly - Knowledge that one's actions would certainly result in a crime against someone, but did not specifically intend to commit that crime against the particular victim which one is accused of injuring; for example, to shoot an arrow at A but hit B. This also covers the concept of willful blindness. Willful blindness is where a person knows that something is very probable, but avoids investigating to gain that knowledge. Often used against drug mules, who knew that it was highly likely that there was contraband in the vehicle, but refused to look. (3) Recklessly - Knowledge that one's actions had an unjustifiable risk of leading to a certain result, but did not care about that risk ("reckless disregard"), and acted anyway; for example, to shoot an arrow in the air in a crowded place. It should be noted that under the MPC, barring contradictory statutory language, recklessness is the minimum mens rea that will lead to criminal liability. This covers the "depraved heart" state of mens rea, which is an extreme disregard for human life. Examples include playing Russian Roulette, street racing, and other highly dangerous activities. (4) Negligently - Did not intend to cause the result that happened, but failed to exercise a reasonable duty of care to prevent that result (which includes failing to become aware of the risk of that result.) The above is the tort standard of negligence. In general this is not enough for criminal liability. Criminal negligence is a "gross deviation" from the standards of normal conduct and includes a substantial and unjustifiable risk. For example, one might be negligent for failing to put up a fence to keep children away from your pool. This will not lead to criminal charges. Criminal negligence might include keeping a vicious dog tied to a tree with twine. Some commentators like to add on a fifth uncodified level, which exists in practice if not in the idealized Model Penal Code, which is, after all, merely a guide for states to follow in the development of their own criminal code. It should be kept in mind that the MPC is, in and of itself, not the law of the land anywhere, though many states have followed it to some degree or another. (5) Strict liability - Strict liability is usually for "public welfare" offenses, like parking tickets, environmental regulations, and other such things. It is where the mental state of the defendant bears no relevance to the prosecution of the crime; the act itself is enough for conviction. Strict liabilty is rather rare in criminal law, but it does happen. For instance, statutory rape is a strict liability crime in some North American juridstictions. Therefore even if the defendant believed the child to be over the age of consent, the defendant is still guilty of statutory rape if the child is underage even if the child lied about their age.
Examples of mens rea in statutes
Model Penal Code: A person commits murder if he (1) purposely or knowingly (2) causes the death of a human being. Common Law: (a) It shall be unlawful for a person to cause the death of a human being with malice aforethought. (b) A violation of this section is murder in the second degree.
See also

- animus nocendi
- voluntas necandi Category:Criminal law Category:Mental health law Category:Latin legal phrases ja:故意

Causation (law)

In law, causation is the name given to the process of testing whether defendants should be fixed with liability for the outcome to their acts and omissions that injure or cause loss to others. The following conceptual statement should be taken as sufficiently general to apply equally to Criminal Law, Tort and the general process of quantifying damages in the civil law.

The concepts

Most legal systems are to a greater or lesser extent concerned with the notions of fairness and justice. If a state is going to penalise a person or require that person to pay compensation to another for losses incurred, this imposition of liability will be derived from the idea that those who injure others should take responsibility for their actions. Although some parts of any legal system will have qualities of strict liability, most look to establish liability by showing that the defendant was the most proximate cause of the particular injury or loss. Even the youngest children quickly learn that, with varying degrees of probability, consequences flow from physical acts and omissions. The more predictable the outcome, the greater the likelihood that the actor caused the injury or loss intentionally. There are many ways in which the law might capture this simple rule of practical experience: that there is a natural flow to events, that a reasonable man in the same situation would have foreseen this consequence as likely to occur, that the loss flowed naturally from the breach of contractual or tortious duty, etc. However it is phrased, the essence of the degree of fault attributed will lie in the fact that reasonable people try to avoid injuring others so, if harm was foreseeable, there should be liability to the extent that the extent of the harm actually resulting was foresseable.

The key principle

The key principle is stated as novus actus interveniens. This is Latin for "some new action breaking in". The assumption is that acts and omissions are linked together rather like a chain. If each link naturally leads to the next from a very early point in the sequence to the point where the injury is sustained, liability will be incurred. But if some external person or event interferes, this may break the chain and so prevent liability from being incurred for the full extent of the injuries caused. For example, A forms the intention to kill B and makes an attack resulting in B's removal to a hospital for treatment. A junior doctor then negligently treats B who dies. In this example, two people have combined to produce a situation in which another dies. Had it not been for A's attack, B would never had been taken to a hospital. Had it not been for the doctor's negligence, B would have survived. The effect of the principle may be stated simply: :if the new event, whether through human agency or natural causes, does not break the chain, the original actor is liable for all the consequences flowing naturally from the initial circumstances. But if the new act breaks the chain, the liability of the initial actor stops at that point, and the new actor, if human, will be liable for all that flows from his or her contribution. Hence, we are concerned with two interconnected subordinate questions derived from the following question: if two or more people are involved in causing the injury or loss caused to a victim, who represents the most proximate cause? #Is the test of proximity concerned only with the question of who among the many was the last one to make a contribution to the chain? #Is the test a qualitative evaluation of the contribution made by each actor to identify whose contribution was the most substantial? The first draws strength from the Criminal Law relating to inchoate offences. Here, the test of proximity relates to the need to prove that the accused has failed to commit the full offence but nevertheless represents a real danger to the public. Thus, the accused must have committed every step up to and including the penultimate step before the elements constituting the actus reus are present. If this was applied to causation generally, it would be a simple rule to apply, fixing the last person to act in the chain with the liability for all that follows, no matter what its origin. But this fails to consider whether the last actor's behaviour made any significant contribution to the impetus towards the particular outcome. It might be that, no matter what the last actor had done, the injury or loss would have been sustained. Thus, the more fair system would adopt a qualitative analysis to determine which among the actors has made the most substantial contribution to the flow of events naturally leading to the injury or loss.

The principle applied

Factual analysis

To be acceptable, any rule of law must be capable of being applied consistently so a definition of the criteria for this qualitative analysis must be supplied. Let us assume a purely factual analysis as a starting point. A injures B and leaves him lying in the road. C is a driver who fails to see B on the road and, by running over him, contributes to the cause of his death. It would be possible to ask for a detailed medical evaluation at a post mortem to determine the initial degree of injury and the extent to which A's life was threatened, followed by a second set of injuries from the collision and their contribution. If the first incident merely damaged B's leg so that he could not move, it is tempting to assert that C's driving must have been the more substantial cause and so represents a novus actus breaking the chain. Equally, if A was bleeding to death and the only contribution that the driving made was to break B's arm, the driving is not a novus actus and does not break the chain. But this approach ignores the issue of A's foresight. Roads are, by their nature, used by vehicles and it is clearly foreseeable that a person left lying on the road is at risk of being further injured by an inattentive driver. Hence, if A leaves B on the road with knowledge of that risk and the foreseen event occurs, A remains the more proximate cause. This leaves the question as to whether the test of foresight should be subjective, objective or hybrid (i.e. both subjective and objective). Obviously, there is no difficulty in holding A liable if A had actual knowledge of the likelihood that B would be further injured by a driver. The fault which caused the initial injury is compounded by the omission to move B to a safer place or call for assistance. But let us assume that A never adverts to the possibility of further injury. The issue is now the extent to which knowledge may be imputed objectively.

Foreseeability test

Some aspects of the physical world are so inevitable that it is always reasonable to impute knowledge of their incidence. So if A abandons B on a beach, A must be taken to foresee that the tide comes in and goes out. But the mere fact that B subsequently drowns is not enough. A court would have to consider where the body was left and what level of injury A believed that B had suffered. If B was left in a position that any reasonable person would consider safe but a storm surge caused extensive flooding throughout the area, this might be a novus actus. That B was further injured by an event within a foreseen class does not of itself require a court to hold that every incident falling within that class is a natural link in the chain. Only those causes that are reasonably foreseeable fit naturally into the chain. So if A had heard a weather forecast predicting a storm, the drowning will be a natural outcome. But if this was an event like a flash flood, an entirely unpredictable event, it will be a novus actus. The question of A's beliefs is no different. If A honestly believes that B is only slightly injured and so could move himself out of danger without difficulty, how fair is it to say that he ought to have foreseen? The test is what the reasonable person would have known and foreseen, given what A had done. It is the function of any court to evaluate behaviour. A defendant cannot evade responsibility through a form of wilful blindness. Fault lies not only in what a person actually believes, but also in failing to understand what the vast majority of other people would have understood. Hence, the test is hybrid, looking both at what the defendant actually knew and foresaw (i.e. subjective), and at what the reasonable person would have known (i.e. objective) and then combining the conclusions into a general evaluation of the degree of fault or blameworthiness. Similarly, in the quantification of damages generally and/or the partitioning of damages between two or more defendants, the extent of the liability to compensate the plaintiff(s) will be determined what was reasonably foreseeable. So if, for example, the plaintiff unexpectedly contributed to the extent of the loss suffered, that additional element would not be included in the damages award even though the plaintiff would not have had the opportunity to make this mistake had it not been for the defendant's breach. In cases involving the partitioning of damages between multiple defendants, each will be liable to the extent that their contribution foreseeably produced the loss. Category:Criminal law Category:Judicial remedies Category:Tort law

Defendant

A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been forhotnessmally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute. A defendant in a civil action usually makes his or her first court appearance voluntarily in response to a summons, whereas a defendant in a Criminal law criminal case is usually taken into custody by a police and brought before a court, pursuant to an arrest warrant. The actions of a defendant, and its lawyer counsel, is known as the defense defence. A respondent is the parallel term used in a proceeding which is commenced by petition. Historically, a defendant in a civil action could also be taken into custody pursuant to a writ of capias ad respondendum and forced to post bail before being released from custody. However, a modern day defendant in a civil action is usually able to avoid most (if not all) court appea