In the North American legal system and in US Occupational Safety and Health regulations, willful violation (also called 'willful non-compliance') is an "act done voluntarily with either an intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to," the requirements of Acts, regulations, statutes or relevant workplace policies.[1][2][3] This is described with slightly different emphasis in an OSHA technical manual that a "willful violation exists under the Act where the evidence shows either an intentional violation of the Act or plain indifference to its requirements." [4]
Criminal recklessness is similarly described in Black's Law Dictionary as "Conduct whereby the actor does not desire harmful consequence but...foresees the possibility and consciously takes the risk," or alternatively as "a state of mind in which a person does not care about the consequences of his or her actions."[5]
See also
- Willful blindness (also called 'willful ignorance' or 'contrived ignorance')
- Criminal negligence
- Recklessness (law)
- Health and safety law
- Negligence
- Carelessness (criminal)
- Omission (criminal law)
- Regulatory offences
- Culpability
- Plausible deniability
- Reckless endangerment
- Reasonable person
- Depraved heart murder
- Intention (criminal law)
- Duty of care
- Breach of duty in English law
- Calculus of negligence
- Good Samaritan law
- Rescue doctrine
- Duty to rescue
- Infraction
- Contravention
- Regulatory offences
- Mens rea (Guilty Mind)
- Actus reus (Guilty Act)
- Imputation (law)
- Automatism (law)
- Excuse (legal)
- Tort Law
- English tort law
- Treble damages
- Punitive damages