title: Stalking

text: Stalking has also been described as a form of close relationship between the parties, albeit a disjunctive one where the two participants have opposing goals rather than cooperative goals. One participant, often a woman, likely wishes to end the relationship entirely, but may find herself unable to easily do so. The other participant, often but not always a man, wishes to escalate the relationship. It has been described as a close relationship because the duration, frequency, and intensity of contact may rival that of a more traditional conjunctive dating relationship.


title: Stalking

text: Based on work with stalking victims for eight years in Australia, Mullen and Pathé identified different types of stalking victims, characterized by prior relationship with the stalker. These are:


title: Stalking

text: Although stalking is a gender-neutral behavior, studies confirm that the majority of victims are female and that the primary perpetrators are male. As for the victims, a January 2009 report from the United States Department of Justice reported the rate of stalking victimization for female was approximately 2% and for male was approximately 0.7%. As for the perpetrators, many studies have shown that approximately 80-90% of stalking perpetrators are male.


title: Stalking

text: According to one study, women often target other women, whereas men primarily stalk women. A January 2009 report from the United States Department of Justice also reports that "Males were as likely to report being stalked by a male as by a female offender. 43% of male stalking victims stated that the offender was female, while 41% of male victims stated that the offender was another male. Female victims of stalking were significantly more likely to be stalked by a male (67%) rather than a female (24%) offender." This report provides considerable data by gender and race about both stalking and harassment, obtained via the 2006 Supplemental Victimization Survey (SVS), by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Department of Justice.


title: Stalking

text: In an article in the journal "Sex Roles", Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling discusses how gender plays a role in the difference between stalkers and victims. She says, "gender is associated with the types of emotional reactions that are experienced by recipients of stalking related events, including the degree of fear experienced by the victim." In addition, she hypothesizes that gender may also affect how police handle a case of stalking, how the victim copes with the situation, and how the stalker might view their behavior. She discusses how victims might view certain forms of stalking as normal because of gender socialization influences on the acceptability of certain behaviors. She emphasizes that in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, strangers are considered more dangerous when it comes to stalking than a former partner. Media also plays an important role due to portrayals of male stalking behavior as acceptable, influencing men into thinking it is normal. Since gender roles are socially constructed, sometimes men don't report stalking. She also mentions coercive control theory; "future research will be needed to determine if this theory can predict how changes in social structures and gender-specific norms will result in variations in rates of stalking for men versus women over time in the United States and across the world."


title: Stalking

text: Psychologists often group individuals who stalk into two categories: psychotic and nonpsychotic. Some stalkers may have pre-existing psychotic disorders such as delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder, or schizophrenia. However, most stalkers are nonpsychotic and may exhibit disorders or neuroses such as major depression, adjustment disorder, or substance dependence, as well as a variety of personality disorders (such as antisocial, borderline, or narcissistic). The nonpsychotic stalkers' pursuit of victims is primarily angry, vindictive, focused, often including projection of blame, obsession, dependency, minimization, denial, and jealousy. Conversely, only 10% of stalkers had an erotomanic delusional disorder.


title: Stalking

text: In addition to Mullen et al., Joseph A. Davis, Ph.D., an American researcher, crime analyst, and university psychology professor at San Diego State University investigated, as a member of the Stalking Case Assessment Team (SCAT), special unit within the San Diego District Attorney's Office, hundreds of cases involving what he called and typed "terrestrial" and "cyberstalking" between 1995 and 2002. This research culminated in one of the most comprehensive books written to date on the subject. Published by CRC Press, Inc. in August 2001, it is considered the "gold standard" as a reference to stalking crimes, victim protection, safety planning, security and threat assessment.


title: Stalking

text: The 2002 National Victim Association Academy defines an additional form of stalking: The vengeance/terrorist stalker. Both the vengeance stalker and terrorist stalker (the latter sometimes called the political stalker) do not, in contrast with some of the aforementioned types of stalkers, seek a personal relationship with their victims but rather force them to emit a certain response. While the vengeance stalker's motive is "to get even" with the other person whom he/she perceives has done some wrong to them (e.g., an employee who believes is fired without justification from a job by a superior), the political stalker intends to accomplish a political agenda, also using threats and intimidation to force the target to refrain or become involved in some particular activity regardless of the victim's consent. For example, most prosecutions in this stalking category have been against anti-abortionists who stalk doctors in an attempt to discourage the performance of abortions.


title: Stalking

text: Stalkers may fit categories with paranoia disorders. Intimacy-seeking stalkers often have delusional disorders involving erotomanic delusions. With rejected stalkers, the continual clinging to a relationship of an inadequate or dependent person couples with the entitlement of the narcissistic personality, and the persistent jealousy of the paranoid personality. In contrast, resentful stalkers demonstrate an almost "pure culture of persecution", with delusional disorders of the paranoid type, paranoid personalities, and paranoid schizophrenia.


title: Stalking

text: One of the uncertainties in understanding the origins of stalking is that the concept is now widely understood in terms of specific behaviors which are found to be offensive or illegal. As discussed above, these specific (apparently stalking) behaviors may have multiple motivations.


title: Stalking

text: In addition, the personality characteristics that are often discussed as antecedent to stalking may also produce behavior that is not conventionally defined as stalking. Some research suggests there is a spectrum of what might be called "obsessed following behavior." People who complain obsessively and for years, about a perceived wrong or wrong-doer, when no one else can perceive the injury—and people who cannot or will not "let go" of a person or a place or an idea—comprise a wider group of persons that may be problematic in ways that seem similar to stalking. Some of these people get extruded from their organizations—they may get hospitalized or fired or let go if their behavior is defined in terms of illegal stalking, but many others do good or even excellent work in their organizations and appear to have just one focus of tenacious obsession.


title: Stalking

text: Cyberstalking is the use of computers or other electronic technology to facilitate stalking. In Davis (2001), Lucks identified a separate category of stalkers who instead of a terrestrial means, prefer to perpetrate crimes against their targeted victims through electronic and online means. Amongst college students, Ménard and Pincus found that men who had a high score of sexual abuse as children and narcissistic vulnerability were more likely to become stalkers. Out of the women who participated in their study, 9% were cyberstalkers meanwhile only 4% were overt stalkers. In addition, the male participants revealed the opposite, 16% were overt stalkers while 11% were cyberstalkers. Alcohol and physical abuse both played a role in predicting women's cyberstalking and in men, "preoccupied attachment significantly predicted cyber stalking".


title: Stalking

text: According to a U.S. Department of Justice special report a significant number of people reporting stalking incidents claim that they had been stalked by more than one person, with 18.2% reporting that they were stalked by two people, 13.1% reporting that they had been stalked by three or more. The report did not break down these cases into numbers of victims who claimed to have been stalked by several people individually, and by people acting in concert. A question asked of respondents reporting three or more stalkers by polling personnel about whether the stalking was related to co-workers, members of a gang, fraternities, sororities, etc., did not have its responses indicated in the survey results as released by the DOJ. The data for this report was obtained via the 2006 Supplemental Victimization Survey (SVS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Department of Justice.


title: Stalking

text: According to a United Kingdom study by Sheridan and Boon, in 5% of the cases they studied there was more than one stalker, and 40% of the victims said that friends or family of their stalker had also been involved. In 15% of cases, the victim was unaware of any reason for the harassment.


title: Stalking

text: Over a quarter of all stalking and harassment victims do not know their stalkers in any capacity. About a tenth responding to the SVS did not know the identities of their stalkers. 11% of victims said they had been stalked for five years or more.


title: Stalking

text: In 1999, Pathe, Mullen and Purcell wrote that popular interest in stalking was promoting false claims. In 2004, Sheridan and Blaauw said that they estimated that 11.5% of claims in a sample of 357 reported claims of stalking were false.


title: Stalking

text: According to Sheridan and Blaauw, 70% of false stalking reports were made by people experiencing delusions, stating that "after eight uncertain cases were excluded, the false reporting rate was judged to be 11.5%, with the majority of false victims suffering delusions (70%)." Another study estimated the proportion of false reports that were due to delusions as 64%.


title: Stalking

text: A 2020 study by Sheridan "et al." gave figures for lifetime prevalence of perceived gang-stalking at 0.66% for adult women and 0.17% for adult men.


title: Stalking

text: According to a study conducted by Purcell, Pathé and Mullen (2002), 23% of the Australian population reported having been stalked.


title: Stalking

text: Stieger, Burger and Schild conducted a survey in Austria, revealing a lifetime prevalence of 11% (women: 17%, men: 3%). Further results include: 86% of stalking victims were female, 81% of the stalkers were male. Women were mainly stalked by men (88%) while men were almost equally stalked by men and women (60% male stalkers). 19% of the stalking victims reported that they were still being stalked at the time of study participation (point prevalence rate: 2%). To 70% of the victims, the stalker was known, being a prior intimate partner in 40%, a friend or acquaintance in 23% and a colleague at work in 13% of cases. As a consequence, 72% of the victims reported having changed their lifestyle. 52% of former and ongoing stalking victims reported having a currently impaired (pathological) psychological well-being. There was no significant difference between the incidence of stalking in rural and urban areas.


title: Stalking

text: In 1998, Budd and Mattinson found a lifetime prevalence of 12% in England and Wales (16% female, 7% males). In 2010/11, 57% of stalking victims were found to be female, and 43% were male.


title: Stalking

text: According to a paper by staff from the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, a unit established to deal with people with fixations on public figures, 86% of a sample group of 100 people assessed by them appeared to them to have a psychotic illness; 57% of the sample group were subsequently admitted to hospital, and 26% treated in the community.


title: Stalking

text: A similar retrospective study published in 2009 in "Psychological Medicine," based on a sample of threats to the Royal Family kept by the Metropolitan Police Service over a period of 15 years, suggested that 83.6% of these letter-writers had a serious mental illness.


title: Stalking

text: Dressing, Kuehner and Gass conducted a representative survey in Mannheim, a middle-sized German city, and reported a lifetime prevalence of having been stalked of almost 12%.


title: Stalking

text: In India, a stalking case is reported every 55 minutes. In many cases, women do not report stalking to a family member or police as the women themselves will be blamed.


title: Stalking

text: Tjaden and Thoennes reported a lifetime prevalence (being stalked) of 8% in females and 2% in males (depending on how strict the definition) in the National Violence Against Women Survey.


title: Stalking

text: Every Australian state enacted laws prohibiting stalking during the 1990s, with Queensland being the first state to do so in 1994. The laws vary slightly from state to state, with Queensland's laws having the broadest scope, and South Australian laws the most restrictive. Punishments vary from a maximum of 10 years imprisonment in some states, to a fine for the lowest severity of stalking in others. Australian anti-stalking laws have some notable features. Unlike many US jurisdictions they do not require the victim to have felt fear or distress as a result of the behaviour, only that a reasonable person would have felt this way. In some states, the anti-stalking laws operate extra-territorially, meaning that an individual can be charged with stalking if either they or the victim are in the relevant state. Most Australian states provide the option of a restraining order in cases of stalking, breach of which is punishable as a criminal offence. There has been relatively little research into Australian court outcomes in stalking cases, although Freckelton (2001) found that in the state of Victoria, most stalkers received fines or community based dispositions.


title: Stalking

text: Section 264 of the Criminal Code, titled "criminal harassment", addresses acts which are termed "stalking" in many other jurisdictions. The provisions of the section came into force in August 1993 with the intent of further strengthening laws protecting women. It is a hybrid offence, which may be punishable upon summary conviction or as an indictable offence, the latter of which may carry a prison term of up to ten years. Section 264 has withstood Charter challenges.


title: Stalking

text: In China, simple stalking was treated as a kind of minor offence when it amounted to harassment, so stalkers were usually punished by a small fine or less than 10 days detention under the Public Security Administration Punishment Law.


title: Stalking

text: According to the Tort Liability Law, infringement of citizens' privacy shall be subject to tort liability. For stalkers to spy on, secretly photograph, eavesdrop on or spread the privacy of others, under Article 42 of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law clearly stipulates that they can be detained for not more than five days or fined not more than five hundred yuan, and if the circumstances are more serious, they can be detained for not less than five days and not more than ten days, and can be fined not more than five hundred yuan.


title: Stalking

text: Unfortunately, under the current judicial system in Mainland China, there is a lack of judicial protection for individuals facing illegal stalking, harassment, surveillance, and other stalking behaviors. Even celebrities may not be able to solve it for a long time when faced with stalking of illegitimate meals. Many cases across China have shown that ordinary people who have been stalked may still be unable to solve the problem after they seek help from the judicial authorities. In the case of Wuhu, Anhui in March 2018, the entangled woman repeatedly rescued the police to no avail and was eventually killed. In the in Laiyuan, Hebei in July of the same year, women and their families who had been stalked and harassed for a long time also helped the police repeatedly to no avail. It didn't end until the opponent broke into the home with arms and was killed by victim's parents.


title: Stalking

text: In the social culture of mainland China, the "stalker" type of courtship is highly respected, that is, as the saying goes, "good women (martyrs) are afraid of stalkers". Literary works also publicly promote such behaviors, and stalking between opposite sexes is thus beautified as courtship. In real life, this type of behavior may even occur when the two parties do not know each other and the stalked person does not know in advance. Through online platforms and other social media, with the help of the convenience of online communication, individuals and institutions directly participate in, promote, and support various "courtship-style" tracing and stalking cases.


title: Stalking

text: Article 222–33–2 of the French Criminal Code (added in 2002) penalizes "Moral harassment," which is: "Harassing another person by repeated conduct which is designed to or leads to a deterioration of his conditions of work liable to harm his rights and his dignity, to damage his physical or mental health or compromise his career prospects," with a year's imprisonment and a fine of EUR15,000.


title: Stalking

text: The German Criminal Code (§ 238 StGB) penalizes "Nachstellung", defined as threatening or seeking proximity or remote contact with another person and thus heavily influencing their lives, with up to three years of imprisonment. The definition is not strict and allows "similar behaviour" to also be classified as stalking.


title: Stalking

text: In 2013, Indian Parliament made amendments to the Indian Penal Code, introducing stalking as a criminal offence. Stalking has been defined as a man following or contacting a woman, despite clear indication of disinterest by the woman, or monitoring her use of the Internet or electronic communication. A man committing the offence of stalking would be liable for imprisonment up to three years for the first offence, and shall also be liable to fine and for any subsequent conviction would be liable for imprisonment up to five years and with fine.


title: Stalking

text: Following a series of high-profile incidents that came to public attention, a law was proposed in June 2008 which became effective in February 2009 (D.L. 23.02.2009 n. 11) making a criminal offence under the newly introduced art. 612 bis of the penal code, punishable with imprisonment ranging from six months up to five years, any ""continuative harassing, threatening or persecuting behaviour which: (1) causes a state of anxiety and fear in the victim(s), or; (2) ingenerates within the victim(s) a motivated fear for his/her own safety or for the safety of relatives, , or others tied to the victim him/herself by an affective relationship, or; (3), forces the victim(s) to change his/her living habits"". If the perpetrator of the offense is a subject tied to the victim by kinship or that is or has been in the past involved in a relationship with the victim (i.e., a current or former spouse or fiancé), or if the victim is a pregnant woman or a minor or a person with disabilities, the sanction can be elevated up to six years of incarceration.


title: Stalking

text: In 2000, Japan enacted a national law to combat this behaviour, after the murder of Shiori Ino. Acts of stalking can be viewed as "interfering [with] the tranquility of others' lives" and are prohibited under petty offence laws.


title: Stalking

text: However, stalking cases are increasing rather than decreasing, with more than 20,000 people reporting cases to the police in 2013, and civil society organisations estimate that these are only the tip of the iceberg; Japan has seen the highest growth in stalking cases in the world in recent years, and stalking has continued to turn into homicide. Many victims say that reporting to the police is ineffective, that the police treat it as a minor domestic dispute, that the process of filing a court order for protection can take months, and that some people have to hire private bodyguards.


title: Stalking

text: In the Wetboek van Strafrecht, Article 285b defines the crime of "" (harassment), which is a term used for stalking.


title: Stalking

text: Until 2021, simple stalking was treated as a kind of minor offence when it amounted to harassment, so stalkers were usually punished by a small fine or less than 30 days detention under the Minor Offences Act. In April 2021, the National Assembly passed an act intended to address widespread stalking crimes and protect victims, which came into force on October 21 the same year. The act includes a provision that mandates the victim must approve of punishment for the stalker. A subsequent bill proposes to remove this provision to address situations where the victim may fear retribution from the stalker.


title: Stalking

text: South Korea's stalking laws were criticized for weaknesses and led to accusations the country does not treat violence against women seriously enough when a female subway worker in Seoul was stalked and stabbed to death in the subway restroom by her former colleague in September 2022. The stalker had been harassing the victim since 2019.


title: Stalking

text: In October 2022, the city of Seoul announced the opening of three shelters to house stalking victims and offer free counseling.


title: Stalking

text: In the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, such an independent corpus delicti as stalking is absent. However, lawyers argue that the persecution of a person in Russia can also be seriously fined. The victim of stalking only needs to use the articles that are already in the code. So, if the persecutor uses threats, then should refer to Article 119 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Threats of murder or causing grievous bodily harm". In this case, the offender is punished with compulsory labor for up to 480 hours or forced labor for up to 2 years. Also, the persecutor may face arrest for up to six months or imprisonment (restriction) of freedom for up to two years.


title: Stalking

text: "Violation of privacy" (Article 137 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) can also be applied part of stalking. This crime manifests itself in the illegal collection of information about private life and its dissemination (including in public speeches and the media). For this, a criminal can receive a fine of up to 200 thousand rubles, go to compulsory work for up to 360 hours, and even be imprisoned for two years. In addition, persecutors often violate Article 138 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Violation of the secrecy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraph and other messages of citizens. The article provides for punishment ranging from a fine of 80 thousand rubles to correctional labor for up to one year.


title: Stalking

text: However, these are not all articles of the Criminal Code that can be applied to stalkers. As result, I.A. Yurchenko, author of Crimes Against Information Security, claims that victims of persecution, in the presence of appropriate circumstances, have the right to use Article 133 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Compulsion to Sexual Actions" (from a fine of 120 thousand rubles to imprisonment for up to one year), article 139 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Violation of the inviolability of the home" (from a fine in the amount of 40 thousand rubles to imprisonment for two to three years), article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Extortion (imprisonment up to seven years), article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Intentional destruction or damage to property (up to imprisonment in accordance with the gravity of the offense).


title: Stalking

text: Indeed, under the listed articles, many Russian stalkers were convicted. For example, a resident of Ufa, who forced his ex-girlfriend to resume relations by means of threats related to exposing her intimate photographs to the public, was found guilty under Articles 133 and 137 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced to a fine of 70 thousand rubles. According to some lawyers, the punishment in such cases is not always commensurate with the crime committed, therefore they propose to include in the Criminal Code of Russia an article similar to § 238 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany, according to which a stalker pursuing a person faces up to 3 years in prison.


title: Stalking

text: Also for its specific forms, one can be held criminally liable, for example: a threat to kill or cause grievous bodily harm (Article 119 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); violation of privacy, that is, the illegal collection or dissemination of information about the private life of a person that constitutes his personal or family secret, without his consent (Article 137 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); violation of the inviolability of the home (Article 139 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). To do this, victim need to apply with a statement to law enforcement agencies. Crimes under Art. 137 and 139 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are being investigated by investigators of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, and criminal cases on the fact of threats are being considered by interrogators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Therefore, it is necessary to contact the relevant law enforcement agency at the scene of the crime (in this case, it is imperative to obtain a coupon-notification of the KUSP, confirming the fact of filing an application).


title: Stalking

text: In Taiwan, more than 7,000 cases are reported each year, nearly half of which have been repeatedly harassed for up to a year and a quarter for up to three years, with 80% of the victims being female. A survey conducted by the Modern Women's Foundation in 2014 showed that less than 10% of those who had been harassed would report it or file a complaint, and 12.4% of young female students were found to have been stalked during the interview; the foundation therefore promoted the legislation of the "Stalking Prevention Act". However, the draft has not been reviewed since its first reviewing in the Legislative in 2015. In 2019, the DPP blocked the third reading of the bill on the grounds that it would "increase police duties." It was only in 2021 that the Stalking Prevention Act was again discussed and passed by the Legislative Yuan due to the murder of women. During the legislative process, the DPP insisted that the definition of stalking be limited to "related to sex or gender".


title: Stalking

text: Under the Stalking and Harassment Prevention Act, anyone who conducts stalking and harassment may be sentenced to imprisonment of not more than one year or detention; in lieu thereof, or in addition thereto, a fine of not more than one hundred thousand New Taiwan Dollars may be imposed. Anyone who commits the crimes stated in the preceding paragraph with lethal weapons or other dangerous objects shall be sentenced to the imprisonment of not more than five years, or short-term imprisonment; in lieu thereof, or in addition thereto, a fine of not more than five hundred thousand New Taiwan Dollars may be imposed. Violators of a protection order issued by a court in accordance with Article 12, Paragraph 1, Subparagraphs 1 to 3 shall be sentenced to the imprisonment of not more than three years, or detention; in lieu thereof, or in addition thereto, a fine of not more than three hundred thousand New Taiwan Dollars may be imposed.


title: Stalking

text: Before the enactment of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the Telecommunications Act 1984 criminalised indecent, offensive or threatening phone calls, and the Malicious Communications Act 1988 criminalised the sending of an indecent, offensive or threatening letter, electronic communication, or other article to another person.


title: Stalking

text: Before 1997, no specific offence of stalking existed in England and Wales. However, in Scotland, incidents could be dealt with under pre-existing law, with life imprisonment available for the worst offences.


title: Stalking

text: In England and Wales, "harassment" was criminalised by the enactment of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, which came into force on 16 June 1997. It makes it a criminal offence, punishable by up to six months' imprisonment, to make a course of conduct which amounts to harassment of another on two or more occasions. The court can also issue a restraining order, which carries a maximum punishment of five years' imprisonment if breached. In England and Wales, liability may arise if the victim suffers either mental or physical harm as a result of being harassed (or slang term stalked) (see "R. v. Constanza").


title: Stalking

text: In 2012, then-Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the government intended to make another attempt to create a law aimed specifically at stalking behaviour.


title: Stalking

text: In May 2012, the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 created the offence of stalking for the first time in England and Wales, by inserting these offences into the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. The act of stalking under this section is exemplified by contacting, or attempting to contact, a person by any means, publishing any statement or other material relating or purporting to relate to a person, monitoring the use by a person of the Internet, email, or any other form of electronic communication, loitering in any place (whether public or private), interfering with any property in the possession of a person, or watching or spying on a person.


title: Stalking

text: The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 also added Section 4(a) into the Protection From Harassment Act 1997 which covered 'Stalking involving fear of violence or serious alarm or distress'. This created the offence of where a person's conduct amounts to stalking and either causes another to fear (on at least two occasions) that violence will be used against them, or conduct that causes another person serious alarm or distress which has a substantial effect on their usual day-to-day activities.


title: Stalking

text: In Scotland, behaviour commonly described as stalking was already prosecuted as the common law offence of breach of the peace (not to be confused with the minor English offence of the same description) before the introduction of the statutory offence against s.39 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010; either course can still be taken depending on the circumstances of each case. The statutory offence incurs a penalty of twelve months imprisonment or a fine upon summary conviction, or a maximum of five years' imprisonment or a fine upon conviction on indictment; penalties for conviction for breach of the peace are limited only by the sentencing powers of the court, thus a case remitted to the High Court can carry a sentence of imprisonment for life.


title: Stalking

text: Provision is made under the Protection from Harassment Act against stalking to deal with the civil offence (i.e. the interference with the victim's personal rights), falling under the law of delict. Victims of stalking may sue for interdict against an alleged stalker, or a non-harassment order, breach of which is an offence.


title: Stalking

text: California was the first state to criminalize stalking in the United States in 1990 as a result of numerous high-profile stalking cases in California, including the 1982 attempted murder of actress Theresa Saldana, the 1988 massacre by Richard Farley, the 1989 murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer, and five Orange County stalking murders, also in 1989. The first anti-stalking law in the United States, California Penal Code Section 646.9, was developed and proposed by Municipal Court Judge John Watson of Orange County. Watson with U.S. Representative Ed Royce introduced the law in 1990. Also in 1990, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) founded the United States' first Threat Management Unit, founded by LAPD Captain Robert Martin.


title: Stalking

text: Within three years thereafter, every state in the United States followed suit to create the crime of stalking, under different names such as "criminal harassment" or "criminal menace". The Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) was enacted in 1994 in response to numerous cases of a driver's information being abused for criminal activity, with prominent examples including the Saldana and Schaeffer stalking cases. The DPPA prohibits states from disclosing a driver's personal information without permission by State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).


title: Stalking

text: The Violence Against Women Act of 2005, amending a United States statute, 108 Stat. 1902 et seq, defined stalking as:


title: Stalking

text: As of 2011, stalking is an offense under section 120a of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The law took effect on 1 October 2007.


title: Stalking

text: In 2014, new amendments were made to the Clery Act to require reporting on stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence.


title: Stalking

text: In 2018, the PAWS Act became law in the United States, and it expanded the definition of stalking to include "conduct that causes a person to experience a reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury to his or her pet".


title: Stalking

text: Stalking is a controversial crime because a conviction does not require any physical harm. The anti-stalking statute of Illinois is particularly controversial. It is particularly restrictive, by the standards of this type of legislation.


title: Stalking

text: The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence defines and criminalizes stalking, as well as other forms of violence against women. The Convention came into force on 1 August 2014.


title: John Dee

text: John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated the foundation of English colonies in the New World to form a "British Empire", a term he is credited with coining.


title: John Dee

text: Dee eventually left Elizabeth's service and went on a quest for additional knowledge in the deeper realms of the occult and supernatural. He aligned himself with several individuals who may have been charlatans, travelled through Europe and was accused of spying for the English crown. Upon his return to England, he found his home and library vandalised. He eventually returned to the Queen's service, but was turned away when she was succeeded by James I. He died in poverty in London and his gravesite is unknown.


title: John Dee

text: Dee was born in Tower Ward, London, to Rowland Dee, of Welsh descent, and Johanna, daughter of William Wild. His surname "Dee" reflects the Welsh "du" (). His grandfather was Bedo Ddu of Nant-y-groes, Pilleth, Radnorshire; John retained his connection with the locality. His father Roland was a mercer and gentleman courtier to Henry VIII. John Dee claimed descent from Rhodri the Great, 9th century ruler of Gwynedd, and constructed a pedigree accordingly. His family had arrived in London with Henry Tudor's coronation as Henry VII.


title: John Dee

text: Dee attended Chelmsford Chantry School (now King Edward VI Grammar School) from 1535 to 1542. He entered St John's College, Cambridge in November 1542, aged 15, graduating BA in 1545 or early 1546. His abilities recognised, he became an original fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge on its foundation by Henry VIII in 1546. At Trinity, the clever stage effects he produced for a production of Aristophanes' "Peace" earned him lasting repute as a magician. In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he travelled in Europe, studying at Louvain (1548) and Brussels and lecturing in Paris on Euclid. He studied under Gemma Frisius and became friends with the cartographers Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. Dee also met, worked and learnt from other continental mathematicians, such as Federico Commandino in Italy. He returned to England with a major collection of mathematical and astronomical instruments. In 1552, he met Gerolamo Cardano in London, with whom he investigated a purported perpetual motion machine and a gem supposed to have magical properties.


title: John Dee

text: Rector at Upton-upon-Severn from 1553, Dee was offered a readership in mathematics at Oxford University in 1554, which he declined, citing as offensive English universities' emphasis on rhetoric and grammar (which, together with logic, formed the academic "trivium") over philosophy and science (the more advanced "quadrivium", composed of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy). He was busy with writing and perhaps hoped for a better position at court. In 1555, Dee joined the Worshipful Company of Mercers, as his father had, through its system of patrimony.


title: John Dee

text: In that same year Dee was arrested and charged with the crime of "calculating", because he had cast horoscopes of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth. The charges were raised to treason against Mary. Dee appeared in the Star Chamber and exonerated himself, but was turned over to the Catholic bishop Edmund Bonner for religious examination. His strong, lifelong penchant for secrecy may have worsened matters. The episode was the most dramatic in a series of attacks and slanders that dogged Dee throughout his life. Clearing his name yet again, he soon became a close associate of Bonner.


title: John Dee

text: Dee presented Queen Mary in 1556 with a visionary plan for preserving old books, manuscripts and records and founding a national library, but it was not taken up. Instead, he expanded his personal library in Mortlake, acquiring books and manuscripts in England and on the Continent. Dee's library, a centre of learning outside the universities, became the greatest in England and attracted many scholars.


title: John Dee

text: When Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in 1558, Dee became her astrological and scientific advisor. He chose her coronation date and even became a Protestant. From the 1550s to the 1570s, he served as an advisor to England's voyages of discovery, providing technical aid in navigation and political support to create a "British Empire", a term he was the first to use. Dee wrote in October 1574 to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley seeking patronage. He claimed to have occult knowledge of treasure in the Welsh Marches and of valuable manuscripts kept at Wigmore Castle, knowing that the Lord Treasurer's ancestors came from the area.


title: John Dee

text: In 1564, Dee wrote the Hermetic work "Monas Hieroglyphica" ("The Hieroglyphic Monad"), an exhaustive Cabalistic interpretation of a glyph of his own design, meant to express the mystical unity of all creation. Having dedicated it to Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor in an effort to gain patronage, Dee attempted to present it to him at the time of his ascension to the throne of Hungary. The work was esteemed by many of Dee's contemporaries, but cannot be interpreted today in the absence of the secret oral tradition of that era.


title: John Dee

text: His 1570 "Mathematical Preface" to Henry Billingsley's English translation of Euclid's "Elements" argued for the importance of mathematics as an influence on the other arts and sciences. Intended for an audience outside the universities, it proved to be Dee's most widely influential and frequently reprinted work.


title: John Dee

text: In 1577, Dee published , a work setting out his vision of a maritime empire and asserting English territorial claims on the New World. Dee was acquainted with Humphrey Gilbert and close to Sir Philip Sidney and his circle.


title: John Dee

text: By the early 1580s, Dee was discontented with his progress in learning the secrets of nature and his diminishing influence and recognition in court circles. Failure of his ideas concerning a proposed calendar revision, colonial establishment and ambivalent results for voyages of exploration in North America had nearly brought his hopes of political patronage to an end. He subsequently began to turn energetically towards the supernatural as a means to acquire knowledge. He sought to contact spirits through the use of a "scryer" or crystal-gazer, which he thought would act as an intermediary between himself and the angels.


title: John Dee

text: Dee's first attempts with several scryers were unsatisfactory, but in 1582 he met Edward Kelley (then calling himself Edward Talbot) who impressed him greatly with his abilities. Dee took Kelley into his service and began to devote all his energies to his supernatural pursuits. These "spiritual conferences" or "actions" were conducted with intense Christian piety, always after periods of purification, prayer and fasting. Dee was convinced of the benefits they could bring to mankind. The character of Kelley is harder to assess: some conclude that he acted with cynicism, but delusion or self-deception cannot be ruled out. Kelley's "output" is remarkable for its volume, intricacy and vividness. Dee records in his journals that angels dictated several books to him this way, through Kelley, some in a special angelic or Enochian language.


title: John Dee

text: In 1583, Dee met the impoverished yet popular Polish nobleman Albert Łaski, who, after overstaying his welcome at court, invited Dee to accompany him back to Poland. With some prompting by the "angels" (again through Kelley) and by dint of his worsening status at court, Dee decided to do so. He, Kelley and their families left in September 1583, but Łaski proved to be bankrupt and out of favour in his own country. Dee and Kelley began a nomadic life in Central Europe, meanwhile continuing their spiritual conferences, which Dee detailed in his diaries and almanacs. They had audiences with Emperor Rudolf II in Prague Castle and King Stephen Báthory of Poland, whom they attempted to convince of the importance of angelic communication. The Bathory meeting took place at the Niepołomice Castle (near Kraków, then capital of Poland) and was later analysed by Polish historians (Ryszard Zieliński, Roman Żelewski, Roman Bugaj) and writers (Waldemar Łysiak). While Dee was generally seen as a man of deep knowledge, he was mistrusted for his connection with the English monarch, Elizabeth I, for whom some thought (and still do) that Dee was a spy. The Polish king, a devout Catholic and cautious of supernatural mediators, began their meeting(s) by affirming that prophetic revelations must match the teachings of Christ, the mission of the Holy Catholic Church, and the approval of the Pope.


title: John Dee

text: In 1587, at a spiritual conference in Bohemia, Kelley told Dee that the angel Uriel had ordered the men to share all their possessions, including their wives. By this time, Kelley had gained some renown as an alchemist and was more sought-after than Dee in this regard: it was a line of work that had prospects for serious and long-term financial gain, especially among the royal families of central Europe. Dee, however, was more interested in communicating with angels, who he believed would help him solve the mysteries of the heavens through mathematics, optics, astrology, science and navigation. Perhaps Kelley in fact wished to end Dee's dependence on him as a diviner at their increasingly lengthy, frequent spiritual conferences. The order for wife-sharing caused Dee anguish, but he apparently did not doubt it was genuine and they apparently shared wives. However, Dee broke off the conferences immediately afterwards. He returned to England in 1589, while Kelley went on to be the alchemist to Emperor Rudolf II. Nine months later, on 28 February 1588, a son was born to Dee's wife, whom Dee baptised Theodorus Trebonianus Dee and raised as his own.


title: John Dee

text: Dee returned to Mortlake after six years abroad to find his home vandalised, his library ruined and many of his prized books and instruments stolen. Furthermore, he found that increasing criticism of occult practices had made England still less hospitable to his magical practices and natural philosophy. He sought support from Elizabeth, who hoped he could persuade Kelley to return and ease England's economic burdens through alchemy. She finally appointed Dee Warden of Christ's College, Manchester, in 1595.


title: John Dee

text: This former College of Priests had been re-established as a Protestant institution by Royal Charter in 1578. However, he could not exert much control over its fellows, who despised or cheated him. Early in his tenure, he was consulted on the demonic possession of seven children, but took little interest in the case, although he allowed those involved to consult his still extensive library.


title: John Dee

text: Dee left Manchester in 1605 to return to London, but remained Warden until his death. By that time, Elizabeth was dead and James I gave him no support. Dee spent his final years in poverty at Mortlake, forced to sell off various possessions to support himself and his daughter, Katherine, who cared for him until his death in Mortlake late in 1608 or early in 1609 aged 81. Both the parish registers and Dee's gravestone are missing. In 2013 a memorial plaque to Dee was placed on the south wall of the present church.


title: John Dee

text: Dee was married three times and had eight children. He married his first wife, Katherine Constable in 1565. They had no children, and she died in 1574. He married his second wife, whose name is unknown, in 1575. She died in 1576, again with no children.


title: John Dee

text: In 1578, when he was 51, he married the 23-year-old Jane Fromond (1555–1604), who had her own connection with the Elizabethan court as a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth FitzGerald, Countess of Lincoln until she married Dee. They had 7 or 8 children, namely: Arthur Dee (1579–1651), Michael Dee (died 1594), Rowland Dee, Katherine Dee, Madinia Dee, Frances Dee, Margaret Dee and, possibly, Theodore Dee (1588–1601).


title: John Dee

text: Dee referred to Thomas Jones, who is the likely loose inspiration for Welsh folkloric outlaw Twm Siôn Cati, as his cousin; the pair corresponded, and Jones visited Dee several times.


title: John Dee

text: From 1577 to 1601, Dee kept a sporadic diary (also referred to as his almanac), from which most of what we know of his life in that time has been gleaned. In 1587, Kelley informed Dee of the angel's wish that they share wives. Theodore Dee, born nine months later, could have been fathered by Kelley, and not Dee.


title: John Dee

text: Jane died in Manchester of bubonic plague and was buried in the Manchester Cathedral burial grounds in March 1604. Michael, born in Prague, died on his father's birthday in 1594. Theodore, born in Třeboň, died in Manchester in 1601. His sons Arthur and Rowland survived him, as did his daughter Katherine, "his companion to the end". No records exist for his youngest daughters Madinia (sometimes Madima), Frances and Margaret after 1604, so it is widely assumed they died in the epidemic that took their mother. (Dee had by this time ceased to keep a diary.)


title: John Dee

text: While Arthur was a student at the Westminster School, Dee wrote to his headmaster echoing the normal worries of boarding-school parents. Arthur was an apprentice in much of his father's alchemical and scientific work and in fact often his diviner until Kelley appeared. He went on to become an alchemist and Hermetic author, whose works were published by Elias Ashmole.


title: John Dee

text: The antiquary John Aubrey describes Dee as "tall and slender. He wore a gown like an artist's gown, with hanging sleeves, and a slit... A very fair, clear sanguine complexion... a long beard as white as milk. A very handsome man."


title: John Dee

text: Dee was an intense Christian, but his religiosity was influenced by Hermetic and Platonic-Pythagorean doctrines pervasive in the Renaissance. He believed that numbers were the basis of all things and key to knowledge. From Hermeticism he drew a belief that man had the potential for divine power that could be exercised through mathematics. His goal was to help bring forth a unified world religion through the healing of the breach of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches and the recapture of the pure theology of the ancients.


title: John Dee

text: From 1570 Dee advocated a policy of political and economic strengthening of England and establishment of colonies in the New World. His manuscript "Brytannicae reipublicae synopsis" (1570) outlined the state of the Elizabethan Realm and was concerned with trade, ethics and national strength.


title: John Dee

text: His 1576 was the first volume in an unfinished series planned to advocate for the establishment of English colonies abroad. In a symbolic frontispiece, Dee included a figure of Britannia kneeling by the shore beseeching Elizabeth I to protect her nation by strengthening her navy. Dee used Geoffrey's inclusion of Ireland in King Arthur's conquests to argue that Arthur had established a "British empire" abroad. He argued that the establishment of new colonies would benefit England economically, with said colonies being protected by a strong navy. Dee has been credited with coining the term "British Empire", but Humphrey Llwyd has also been credited with the first use in his "Commentarioli Britannicae Descriptionis Fragmentum", published eight years earlier in 1568.


title: John Dee

text: Dee posited a formal claim to North America on the back of a map drawn in 1577–1580; he noted that "circa 1494 Mr. Robert Thorn his father, and Mr. Eliot of Bristow, discovered Newfound Land." In his "Title Royal" of 1580, he invented a claim that Madog ab Owain Gwynedd had discovered America, intending thereby to boost England's claim to the New World over that of Spain's. He also asserted that Brutus of Britain and King Arthur, as well as Madog, had conquered lands in the Americas, so that their heir, Elizabeth I of England, had a prior claim there.


title: John Dee

text: Some ten years after Dee's death, the antiquarian Robert Cotton bought land round Dee's house and began digging for papers and artifacts. He found several manuscripts, mainly records of Dee's angelic communications. Cotton's son gave these to the scholar Méric Casaubon, who published them in 1659, with a long introduction critical of their author, as "A True & Faithful Relation of What passed for many Yeers between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reignes) and some spirits". As the first public revelation of Dee's spiritual conferences, the book was popular. Casaubon, who believed in the reality of spirits, argued in his introduction that Dee was acting as the unwitting tool of evil spirits when he believed he was communicating with angels. This book is mainly responsible for the image, prevalent for the next two-and-a-half centuries, of Dee as a dupe and deluded fanatic. About the time the "True and Faithful Relation" was published, members of the Rosicrucian movement claimed Dee as one of their number. There is doubt, however, that an organized Rosicrucian movement existed in Dee's lifetime, and no evidence he ever belonged to any secret fraternity. His reputation as a magician and the vivid story of his association with Edward Kelley have made him a seemingly irresistible figure to fabulists, writers of horror stories and latter-day magicians. The accretion of fanciful information about Dee often obscures the facts of his life, remarkable as they were. It also does nothing to promote his Christian leanings: Dee looked to the angels to tell him how he might heal the deep and serious rifts between the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformed Church of England and the Protestant movement in England. Queen Elizabeth I used him several times as her court astronomer, not solely because he practised Hermetic arts, but as a deeply religious and learned, trustworthy man.


title: John Dee

text: A revaluation of Dee's character and significance came in the 20th century, largely through the work of the historians Charlotte Fell Smith and Dame Frances Yates. Both brought into focus the parallel roles of magic, science and religion in the Elizabethan Renaissance. Fell Smith writes: "There is perhaps no learned author in history who has been so persistently misjudged, nay, even slandered, by his posterity, and not a voice in all the three centuries uplifted even to claim for him a fair hearing. Surely it is time that the cause of all this universal condemnation should be examined in the light of reason and science; and perhaps it will be found to exist mainly in the fact that he was too far advanced in speculative thought for his own age to understand." Through this and subsequent re-evaluation, Dee is now viewed as a serious scholar and book collector, a devoted Christian (albeit at a confusing time for that faith), an able scientist and one of the most learned men of his day. His Mortlake library was the largest in the country before it was vandalised, and created at enormous, sometimes ruinous personal expense; it was seen as one of the finest in Europe, perhaps second only to that of De Thou. As well as being an astrological and scientific advisor to Elizabeth and her court, he was an early advocate of colonisation of North America, envisioning a British Empire stretching across the North Atlantic.


title: John Dee

text: Dee promoted the sciences of navigation and cartography. He studied closely with Gerardus Mercator and owned an important collection of maps, globes and astronomical instruments. He developed new instruments and special navigational techniques for use in polar regions. Dee served as an advisor to English voyages of discovery, and personally selected pilots and trained them in navigation. He believed that mathematics (which he understood mystically) was central to human learning. The centrality of mathematics to Dee's vision makes him to that extent more modern than Francis Bacon, though some scholars believe Bacon purposely downplayed mathematics in the anti-occult atmosphere of the reign of James I. Although Dee's understanding of the role of mathematics differs much from ours, its promotion outside the universities was an enduring achievement. For most of his writings, Dee chose English, rather than Latin, to make them accessible to the public. His "Mathematical Preface" to Euclid was meant to promote the study and application of mathematics by those without a university education, and was popular and influential among the "mechanicians": a growing class of technical craftsmen and artisans. Dee's preface includes demonstrations of mathematical principles that readers could perform themselves without special education or training.


title: John Dee

text: In the 20th century, the Municipal Borough of Richmond (now the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames) honoured John Dee by naming a street near Mortlake "Dee Road".


title: John Dee

text: Dee was a friend of Tycho Brahe and familiar with the work (translated into English by his ward and assistant, Thomas Digges) of Nicolaus Copernicus. Many of his astronomical calculations were based on Copernican assumptions, although he never openly espoused the heliocentric theory. Dee applied Copernican theory to the problem of calendar reform. In 1583, he was asked to advise the Queen on the new Gregorian calendar promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII from October 1582. He advised that England accept it, albeit with seven specific amendments. The first was that the adjustment should not be the ten days that would restore the calendar to the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, but by eleven, which would restore it to the birth of Christ. Another proposal of Dee's was to align the civil and liturgical years and have them both start on 1 January. Perhaps predictably, England chose to spurn suggestions that had papist origins, despite any merit they may have had.


title: John Dee

text: Dee has often been associated with the Voynich manuscript. Wilfrid Michael Voynich, who bought the manuscript in 1912, suggested that Dee may have owned it and sold it to Rudolph II. Dee's contacts with Rudolph were less extensive than had been thought, however, and Dee's diaries show no evidence of a sale. However, he was known to have owned a copy of the "Book of Soyga", another enciphered book.


title: John Dee

text: The British Museum holds several items once allegedly owned by Dee and associated with the spiritual conferences:


title: John Dee

text: In December 2004, both a shew stone (used for divining) formerly belonging to Dee and a mid-17th-century explanation of its use written by Nicholas Culpeper were stolen from the Science Museum in London, but recovered shortly afterwards.


title: John Dee

text: To 21st-century eyes, Dee's activities straddle magic and modern science, but to apply a hard and fast distinction between these two realms or epistemological world views is anachronistic. He was invited to lecture on Euclidean geometry at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. He was an ardent promoter of mathematics, a respected astronomer and a leading expert in navigation, who trained many who would conduct England's voyages of discovery.


title: John Dee

text: Meanwhile, he immersed himself in sorcery, astrology and Hermetic philosophy. Much effort in his last 30 years went into trying to commune with angels, so as to learn the universal language of creation and achieve a pre-apocalyptic unity of mankind. A student of the Renaissance Neo-Platonism of Marsilio Ficino, he drew no distinctions between his mathematical research and his investigations of Hermetic magic, angel summoning and divination: all his activities were part of his quest for a transcendent understanding of divine forms underlying the visible world: Dee's "pure verities".


title: John Dee

text: Dee amassed one of England's biggest libraries. His scholarly status also took him into Elizabethan politics as an adviser and tutor to Elizabeth I and through relations with her ministers Francis Walsingham and William Cecil. He tutored and patronised Sir Philip Sidney; his uncle Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester; Edward Dyer; and Sir Christopher Hatton.


title: John Dee

text: Dee was a popular figure in literary works by his contemporaries and he has continued to feature in popular culture, particularly in fiction or fantasy set during his lifetime or dealing with magic or the occult.


title: John Dee

text: Edmund Spenser may be referring to Dee in "The Faerie Queene" (1596). William Shakespeare may have modelled the character of Prospero in "The Tempest" (1610–1611) on Dee.


title: John Dee

text: Dee is the subject of Henry Gillard Glindoni's painting "John Dee performing an experiment before Queen Elizabeth I".


title: John Dee

text: Dee is a major character in John Crowley's four-volume novel, "Ægypt", the first volume of which, "The Solitudes", was published in 1987.


title: John Dee

text: The film "" (2007) has two scenes in which Queen Elizabeth consults Dr. Dee, played by David Threlfall.


title: John Dee

text: Phil Rickman casts Dee as the main detective, investigating the disappearance of the bones of King Arthur during the reign of Elizabeth I in the historical mystery "The Bones of Avalon" (2010). The play "Burn Your Bookes" (2010) by Richard Byrne examines the relations between Dee, Edward Kelley and Edward Dyer.


title: Convex function

text: In mathematics, a real-valued function is called convex if the line segment between any two points on the graph of the function lies above the graph between the two points. Equivalently, a function is convex if its epigraph (the set of points on or above the graph of the function) is a convex set. A twice-differentiable function of a single variable is convex if and only if its second derivative is nonnegative on its entire domain. Well-known examples of convex functions of a single variable include the quadratic function formula_1 and the exponential function formula_2. In simple terms, a convex function refers to a function whose graph is shaped like a cup formula_3, while a concave function's graph is shaped like a cap formula_4.


title: Convex function

text: Convex functions play an important role in many areas of mathematics. They are especially important in the study of optimization problems where they are distinguished by a number of convenient properties. For instance, a strictly convex function on an open set has no more than one minimum. Even in infinite-dimensional spaces, under suitable additional hypotheses, convex functions continue to satisfy such properties and as a result, they are the most well-understood functionals in the calculus of variations. In probability theory, a convex function applied to the expected value of a random variable is always bounded above by the expected value of the convex function of the random variable. This result, known as Jensen's inequality, can be used to deduce inequalities such as the arithmetic–geometric mean inequality and Hölder's inequality.


title: Convex function

text: The second statement characterizing convex functions that are valued in the real line formula_8 is also the statement used to define that are valued in the extended real number line formula_9 where such a function formula_7 is allowed to take formula_11 as a value. The first statement is not used because it permits formula_12 to take formula_13 or formula_14 as a value, in which case, if formula_15 or formula_16 respectively, then formula_17 would be undefined (because the multiplications formula_18 and formula_19 are undefined). The sum formula_20 is also undefined so a convex extended real-valued function is typically only allowed to take exactly one of formula_21 and formula_22 as a value.


title: Convex function

text: The second statement can also be modified to get the definition of , where the latter is obtained by replacing formula_23 with the strict inequality formula_24


title: Convex function

text: Explicitly, the map formula_7 is called if and only if for all real formula_26 and all formula_27 such that formula_28:


title: Convex function

text: A strictly convex function formula_7 is a function that the straight line between any pair of points on the curve formula_7 is above the curve formula_7 except for the intersection points between the straight line and the curve.


title: Convex function

text: The function formula_7 is said to be ' (resp. ') if formula_34 (formula_7 multiplied by −1) is convex (resp. strictly convex).


title: Convex function

text: The term "convex" is often referred to as "convex down" or "concave upward", and the term concave is often referred as "concave down" or "convex upward". If the term "convex" is used without an "up" or "down" keyword, then it refers strictly to a cup shaped graph formula_3. As an example, Jensen's inequality refers to an inequality involving a convex or convex-(up), function.


title: Convex function

text: Many properties of convex functions have the same simple formulation for functions of many variables as for functions of one variable. See below the properties for the case of many variables, as some of them are not listed for functions of one variable.


title: Convex function

text: The concept of strong convexity extends and parametrizes the notion of strict convexity. A strongly convex function is also strictly convex, but not vice versa.


title: Convex function

text: A differentiable function formula_7 is called strongly convex with parameter formula_153 if the following inequality holds for all points formula_87 in its domain:


title: Convex function

text: where formula_157 is any inner product, and formula_158 is the corresponding norm. Some authors, such as refer to functions satisfying this inequality as elliptic functions.


title: Convex function

text: It is not necessary for a function to be differentiable in order to be strongly convex. A third definition for a strongly convex function, with parameter formula_160 is that, for all formula_87 in the domain and formula_162


title: Convex function

text: Notice that this definition approaches the definition for strict convexity as formula_164 and is identical to the definition of a convex function when formula_165 Despite this, functions exist that are strictly convex but are not strongly convex for any formula_153 (see example below).


title: Convex function

text: If the function formula_7 is twice continuously differentiable, then it is strongly convex with parameter formula_168 if and only if formula_169 for all formula_59 in the domain, where formula_171 is the identity and formula_172 is the Hessian matrix, and the inequality formula_173 means that formula_174 is positive semi-definite. This is equivalent to requiring that the minimum eigenvalue of formula_175 be at least formula_168 for all formula_177 If the domain is just the real line, then formula_175 is just the second derivative formula_179 so the condition becomes formula_180. If formula_181 then this means the Hessian is positive semidefinite (or if the domain is the real line, it means that formula_182), which implies the function is convex, and perhaps strictly convex, but not strongly convex.


title: Convex function

text: Assuming still that the function is twice continuously differentiable, one can show that the lower bound of formula_175 implies that it is strongly convex. Using Taylor's Theorem there exists


title: Convex function

text: by the assumption about the eigenvalues, and hence we recover the second strong convexity equation above.


title: Convex function

text: The distinction between convex, strictly convex, and strongly convex can be subtle at first glance. If formula_7 is twice continuously differentiable and the domain is the real line, then we can characterize it as follows:


title: Convex function

text: For example, let formula_7 be strictly convex, and suppose there is a sequence of points formula_200 such that formula_201. Even though formula_202, the function is not strongly convex because formula_203 will become arbitrarily small.


title: Convex function

text: A twice continuously differentiable function formula_7 on a compact domain formula_5 that satisfies formula_206 for all formula_207 is strongly convex. The proof of this statement follows from the extreme value theorem, which states that a continuous function on a compact set has a maximum and minimum.


title: Convex function

text: Strongly convex functions are in general easier to work with than convex or strictly convex functions, since they are a smaller class. Like strictly convex functions, strongly convex functions have unique minima on compact sets.


title: Convex function

text: A uniformly convex function, with modulus formula_208, is a function formula_7 that, for all formula_87 in the domain and formula_211 satisfies


title: Convex function

text: where formula_208 is a function that is non-negative and vanishes only at 0. This is a generalization of the concept of strongly convex function; by taking formula_214 we recover the definition of strong convexity.


title: Convex function

text: It is worth noting that some authors require the modulus formula_208 to be an increasing function, but this condition is not required by all authors.


title: Mutsuhiro Watanabe

text: Mutsuhiro Watanabe (, 18 January 1918 – 1 April 2003) – nicknamed "the Bird" by his prisoners – was a known war criminal and Imperial Japanese Army soldier in World War II who served in a number of military internment camps. After Japan's defeat, the US Occupation authorities classified Watanabe as a war criminal for his mistreatment of prisoners of war (POWs), but he managed to evade arrest and was never tried in court.


title: Mutsuhiro Watanabe

text: Watanabe served at POW camps in Omori, Naoetsu (present day Jōetsu), Niigata, Mitsushima (present day Hiraoka) and at the Civilian POW Camp at Yamakita.


title: Mutsuhiro Watanabe

text: While in the military, Watanabe allegedly ordered one man who reported to him to be punched in the face every night for three weeks, and practiced judo on an appendectomy patient. One of his prisoners was American track star and Olympian Louis Zamperini. Zamperini reported that Watanabe beat his prisoners often, causing them serious injuries. It is said Watanabe made one officer sit in a shack, wearing only a fundoshi undergarment, for four days in winter, and that he tied a sixty-five-year-old prisoner to a tree for days. According to Hillenbrand's book, Watanabe had studied French, in which he was fluent, and had interest in the French school of nihilist philosophy which holds that life and human existence hold no objective meaning.


title: Mutsuhiro Watanabe

text: In 1945, General Douglas MacArthur included Watanabe as number 23 on his list of the 40 most wanted war criminals in Japan.


title: Mutsuhiro Watanabe

text: However, Watanabe went into hiding and was never prosecuted. In 1952, all charges were quietly dropped. In 1956, the Japanese literary magazine "Bungeishunjū" published an interview with Watanabe, titled "I do not want to be judged by America." He later became an insurance salesman.


title: Mutsuhiro Watanabe

text: Prior to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, the CBS News program "60 Minutes" interviewed Watanabe at the Hotel Okura Tokyo as part of a feature on Louis Zamperini who, four days before his 81st birthday, was returning to carry the Olympic Flame torch through Naoetsu "en route" to Nagano, not far from the POW camp where he had been held. In the interview, Watanabe acknowledged beating and kicking prisoners, but was unrepentant, saying, "I treated the prisoners strictly as enemies of Japan." Zamperini attempted to meet with his chief and most brutal tormentor, but Watanabe, who had evaded prosecution, refused to see him.


title: Mutsuhiro Watanabe

text: Accounts of Watanabe's abusive behavior are given in Laura Hillenbrand's book about Zamperini titled "" (2010). Watanabe also appears in Dr. Alfred A. Weinstein's memoir, "Barbed Wire Surgeon", published in 1948.


title: Mutsuhiro Watanabe

text: In 2014, Japanese musician Miyavi played Watanabe in Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken", the film adaptation of Hillenbrand's book. David Sakurai portrays Watanabe in Harold Cronk's "", a "spiritual successor" to Jolie's film, released in 2018.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe, based on German stories about the title character Faust. It was probably written in 1592 or 1593, shortly before Marlowe's death. Two different versions of the play were published in the Jacobean era several years later.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The Admiral's Men performed 24 times in the three years between October 1594 and October 1597. On 22 November 1602, the diary of Philip Henslowe recorded a £4 payment to Samuel Rowley and William Bird for additions to the play, which suggests a revival soon after that date.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The powerful effect of the early productions is indicated by the legends that quickly accrued around them. In "Histriomastix", his 1632 polemic against the drama, William Prynne records the tale that actual devils once appeared on the stage during a performance of "Faustus", "to the great amazement of both the actors and spectators". Some people were allegedly driven mad, "distracted with that fearful sight". John Aubrey recorded a related legend, that Edward Alleyn, lead actor of The Admiral's Men, devoted his later years to charitable endeavours, like the founding of Alleyn's College, in direct response to this incident.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Given its source in the Historia von D. Johann Fausten, published as a chapbook in Germany in 1587, and the fact that the earliest known translation of the latter work into English was in 1592, the play was probably written in 1592 or 1593. It may have been entered into the Stationers' Register on 18 December 1592, though the records are confused and appear to indicate a conflict over the rights to the play. A subsequent Stationers' Register entry, dated 7 January 1601, assigns the play to the bookseller Thomas Bushnell, the publisher of the 1604 first edition. Bushnell transferred his rights to the play to John Wright on 13 September 1610.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The 1604 version was once believed to be closer to the play as originally performed in Marlowe's lifetime, simply because it was older. By the 1940s, after influential studies by Leo Kirschbaum and W. W. Greg, the 1604 version came to be regarded as an abbreviation and the 1616 version as Marlowe's original fuller version. Kirschbaum and Greg considered the A-text a "bad quarto", and thought that the B-text was linked to Marlowe himself. Since then scholarship has swung the other way, most scholars now considering the A-text more authoritative, even if "abbreviated and corrupt", according to Charles Nicholl.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The 1616 version omits 36 lines but adds 676 new lines, making it roughly one third longer than the 1604 version. Among the lines shared by both versions, there are some small but significant changes in wording; for example, "Never too late, if Faustus can repent" in the 1604 text becomes "Never too late, if Faustus will repent" in the 1616 text, a change that offers a very different possibility for Faustus's hope and repentance.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Another difference between texts A and B is the name of the devil summoned by Faustus. Text A states the name is generally "Mephistopheles", while the version of text B commonly states "Mephostophilis". The name of the devil is in each case a reference to Mephistopheles in "Faustbuch", the source work, which appeared in English translation in about 1588.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The relationship between the texts is uncertain and many modern editions print both. As an Elizabethan playwright, Marlowe had nothing to do with the publication and had no control over the play in performance, so it was possible for scenes to be dropped or shortened, or for new scenes to be added, so that the resulting publications may be modified versions of the original script.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: In the past, it was assumed that the comic scenes were additions by other writers. However, most scholars today consider the comic interludes an integral part of the play, regardless of their author, and so they continue to be included in print. Their tone shows the change in Faustus's ambitions, suggesting Marlowe did at least oversee the composition of them. The clown is seen as the archetype for comic relief.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: "Doctor Faustus" is based on an older tale; it is believed to be the first dramatisation of the Faust legend. Some scholars believe that Marlowe developed the story from a popular 1592 translation, commonly called "The English Faust Book". There is thought to have been an earlier, lost German edition of 1587, the "Historia von D. Johann Fausten", which itself may have been influenced by even earlier, equally ill-preserved pamphlets in Latin (such as those that likely inspired Jacob Bidermann's treatment of the damnation of the doctor of Paris, "Cenodoxus" (1602)).


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Several soothsayers or necromancers of the late fifteenth century adopted the name "Faustus", a reference to the Latin for "favoured" or "auspicious"; typical was Georgius Faustus Helmstetensis, calling himself astrologer and chiromancer, who was expelled from the town of Ingolstadt for such practices. Subsequent commentators have identified this individual as the prototypical Faustus of the legend.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Whatever the inspiration, the development of Marlowe's play is very faithful to the "Faust Book", especially in the way it mixes comedy with tragedy.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Blank verse is largely reserved for the main scenes; prose is used in the comic scenes. Modern texts divide the play into five acts; act 5 being the shortest. As in many Elizabethan plays, there is a chorus (which functions as a narrator), that does not interact with the other characters but rather provides an introduction and conclusion to the play and, at the beginning of some Acts, introduces events that have unfolded.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Along with its history and language style, scholars have critiqued and analysed the structure of the play. Leonard H. Frey wrote a document entitled "In the Opening and Close of Doctor Faustus", which mainly focuses on Faustus's opening and closing soliloquies. He stresses the importance of the soliloquies in the play, saying: "the soliloquy, perhaps more than any other dramatic device, involved the audience in an imaginative concern with the happenings on stage". By having Doctor Faustus deliver these soliloquies at the beginning and end of the play, the focus is drawn to his inner thoughts and feelings about succumbing to the devil.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The soliloquies also have parallel concepts. In the introductory soliloquy, Faustus begins by pondering the fate of his life and what he wants his career to be. He ends his soliloquy with the solution: he will give his soul to the devil. Similarly in the closing soliloquy, Faustus begins pondering, and finally comes to terms with the fate he created for himself. Frey also explains: "The whole pattern of this final soliloquy is thus a grim parody of the opening one, where decision is reached after, not prior to, the survey".


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The Chorus explains that Faustus was low-born, but quickly achieved a doctorate in theology at the University of Wittenberg. However, his interest in learning and his pride soon led him to necromancy.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: In the first scene of the play, Faustus expresses his boredom and impatience with the various branches of knowledge and concludes that only magic is worth learning. He asks his servant Wagner to return with the magicians Valdes and Cornelius, who have been trying to interest him in magic for some time. While he waits, he is visited by a Good Angel, who tries to dissuade him from this path, and a Bad Angel, who encourages him. Valdes and Cornelius arrive and declare that if Faustus devotes himself to magic, great things are indeed possible with someone of Faustus's learning and intelligence.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: While Faustus is at dinner with the magicians, two scholars notice Faustus's absence and ask Wagner about his whereabouts. When Wagner tells them he is with Valdes and Cornelius, the scholars worry that the magicians have corrupted him and leave to inform the rector of the university.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Faustus attempts to conjure a devil, and Mephistophilis arrives. Faustus believes that he has summoned him, but Mephistophilis says that he came of his own accord, and that he serves Lucifer, and cannot do anything without his leave. Faustus questions Mephistophilis about Lucifer and Hell, and tells him to speak to Lucifer and return. The next scene is a comedic reflection in which Wagner calls two devils, with which he scares the Clown into serving him.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Mephistophilis returns, and Faustus signs a contract in his own blood: Mephistophilis will serve him for 24 years, at which point Lucifer will claim him, body and soul. Once the contract is signed, Faustus asks for a wife, but Mephistophilis declines, saying marriage is "but a ceremonial toy"; he asks for books of knowledge, and Mephistophilis provides a single book. In the corresponding comedic scene, Robin, an ostler, has stolen a conjuring book, and plans mischief with it.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Faustus begins to waver and think about God, and is visited again by the Good and Bad Angels. Lucifer arrives to remind him of his contract, and entertains him with a show of the Seven Deadly Sins. Faustus and Mephistophilis then travel Europe, eventually arriving in Rome, where they play tricks on the Pope. Next, Robin and Rafe (A version) or Dick (B version), having been caught for stealing a goblet, call on Mephistophilis, who arrives and angrily turns them into animals before returning to attend on Faustus. Faustus has been called to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, where he and Mephistophilis conjure Alexander the Great and his paramour and give a knight cuckold's horns for being a heckler. In the A version, the emperor asks Faust to relent, and he does; in the B version a longer scene follows in which the knight and his friends attack Faustus; all are given horns. In both versions, Faustus then plays tricks on a horse dealer. Faustus and Mephistophilis then put on a magic show for the Duke and Duchess of Vanholt.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: When Faustus's 24 years are nearly up, he bequeaths his possessions to Wagner. He conjures Helen of Troy for some students, and, when he starts to think of repenting again, renews his pledge to Lucifer and asks Mephistophilis for Helen as his lover. In the final scene, Faustus admits to some scholars that he has bargained away his soul; despite their prayers, the devils come for him.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The theological implications of "Doctor Faustus" have been the subject of considerable debate. Among the most complicated points of contention is whether the play supports or challenges the Calvinist doctrine of absolute predestination, which dominated the lectures and writings of many English scholars in the latter half of the sixteenth century. According to Calvin, predestination meant that God, acting of his own free will, elects some people to be saved and others to be damned—thus, the individual has no control over his own ultimate fate. This doctrine was the source of great controversy because it was seen by the so-called anti-Calvinists to limit man's free will in regard to faith and salvation, and to present a dilemma in terms of theodicy.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: At the time "Doctor Faustus" was performed, this doctrine was on the rise in England, and under the direction of Puritan theologians at Cambridge and Oxford had come to be considered the orthodox position of the Church of England. Nevertheless, it remained the source of vigorous and, at times, heated debate between Calvinist scholars, such as William Whitaker and William Perkins, and anti-Calvinists, such as William Barrett and Peter Baro. The dispute between these Cambridge intellectuals had quite nearly reached its zenith by the time Marlowe was a student there in the 1580s, and likely would have influenced him deeply, as it did many of his fellow students.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Concerning the fate of Faustus, the Calvinist concludes that his damnation was inevitable. His rejection of God and subsequent inability to repent are taken as evidence that he never really belonged to the elect, but rather had been predestined from the very beginning for reprobation. For the Calvinist, Faustus represents the worst kind of sinner, having tasted the heavenly gift and rejected it. His damnation is justified and deserved because he was never truly adopted among the elect. According to this view, the play demonstrates Calvin's "three-tiered concept of causation," in which the damnation of Faustus is first willed by God, then by Satan, and finally, by himself.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: "Ravished" by magic (1.1.112), Faustus turns to the dark arts when law, logic, science, and theology fail to satisfy him. According to Charles Nicholl this places the play firmly in the Elizabethan period when the problem of magic ("liberation or damnation?") was a matter of debate, and when Renaissance occultism aimed at a furthering of science. Nicholl, who connects Faustus as a "studious artisan" (1.1.56) to the "hands-on experience" promoted by Paracelsus, sees in the former a follower of the latter, a "magician as technologist".


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Mephistophilis is a demon whom Faustus conjures up while first using magic. Readers initially feel sympathy for the demon when he attempts to explain to Faustus the consequences of abjuring God and Heaven. Mephistophilis gives Faustus a description of Hell and the continuous horrors it possesses; he wants Faustus to know what he is getting himself into before going through with the bargain:


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Some scholars argue that Mephistophilis depicts the sorrow that comes with separation from God. Mephistophilis is foreshadowing the pain Faustus would have to endure, should he go through with his plan. In this facet, Faustus can be likened to Icarus, whose ambition was the source of his misery and the cause of his death.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The first television adaptation was broadcast in 1947 by the BBC starring David King-Wood as Faustus and Hugh Griffith as Mephistopheles. In 1958, another BBC television version starred William Squire as Faustus in an adaptation by Ronald Eyre intended for schools. In 1961, the BBC adapted the play for television as a two-episode production starring Alan Dobie as Faustus; this production was also meant for use in schools.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The play was adapted for the screen in 1967 by Richard Burton and Nevill Coghill, who based the film on an Oxford University Dramatic Society production in which Burton starred opposite Elizabeth Taylor as Helen of Troy.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast a full radio adaptation of the play with Kenneth Welsh as Faustus and Eric Peterson as Mephistopheles, later releasing it on audio cassette () in 2001 as part of its "Great Plays of the Millennium" series.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: Two live performances in London have been videotaped and released on DVD: one at the Greenwich Theatre in 2010 and one at the Globe Theatre in 2011 starring Paul Hilton as Faustus and Arthur Darvill as Mephistopheles.


title: Doctor Faustus (play)

text: "Doctor Faustus" has raised much controversy due to its alleged interaction with the demonic realm. Before Marlowe, there were few authors who ventured into this kind of writing. After his play, other authors began to expand on their views of the spiritual world.


title: Platinum End

text: Mirai Kakehashi is a young orphaned high school student who lives with his abusive aunt and uncle after the death of his parents. One day, Mirai decides he cannot take it anymore and attempts suicide, but is saved by a Guardian Angel called Nasse, who also gives Mirai special powers. Upon learning from Nasse that his aunt and uncle were responsible for the deaths of his father and mother due to their jealousy and hatred toward to them, Mirai uses the powers that she bestowed to him in order to enact justice upon them. This is only the beginning of Mirai’s story, however, as Nasse soon after informs him that God will retire in 999 days and thirteen candidates to replace him were selected, one of which is Mirai. To make matters worse, not only is Mirai forced to take part in the contest to decide the next God, but some of the other candidates will do anything to win, including killing all of the other candidates as soon as possible. To combat these ruthless killers, Mirai forms an alliance with several candidates who share his goal: to win the contest without killing any other competitors.


title: Platinum End

text: "Platinum End", written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, was serialized in Shueisha's monthly "shōnen" manga magazine "Jump Square" from November 4, 2015, to January 4, 2021. The series' 58 individual chapters were collected into fourteen "tankōbon" volumes, released from February 4, 2016, to February 4, 2021.


title: Platinum End

text: On October 5, 2015, Viz Media announced that they had licensed "Platinum End" for an English release in North America. In March 2016, Viz confirmed that they would start releasing print editions of "Platinum End", with the first volume released in October 2016. The manga is licensed by Kazé in France.


title: Platinum End

text: On December 2, 2020, Pony Canyon registered the "Anime-PlatinumEnd.com" domain name, and on December 19, 2020, at the Jump Festa '21 online event, it was announced that the series would receive an anime television series adaptation by Signal.MD. Hideya Takahashi directed the "first series", while Kazuchika Kise is directing the "second series", with series composition by Shin'ichi Inozume, and character designs by Kōji Ōdate. Masahiro Tokuda is composing the series' music. The series is listed for 24 episodes, and it aired on TBS, BS11, and other channels from October 8, 2021 to March 25, 2022. Band-Maid performed the opening theme "Sense", while Yuu Miyashita performed the first ending theme "Kōfuku-Ron" (Theory of Surrender). Kuhaku Gokko performed the second ending theme "Last Straw." Crunchyroll and Funimation licensed the series outside of Asia. Medialink licensed the series in South and Southeast Asia. Disney+ Hotstar started streaming the anime weekly in select Southeast Asian regions from January 5, 2022.


title: Platinum End

text: On October 28, 2021, Crunchyroll announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered on November 18 of the same year.


title: Platinum End

text: The first volume of "Platinum End" debuted at number two on Oricon's weekly list of the best-selling manga, with 105,213 copies sold. In December 2020, the manga had 4.5 million copies in circulation. When reviewing the opening chapter, Ian Wolf writing for "Anime UK News" compared "Platinum End" to Ohba and Obata's earlier series "Death Note", saying: "the central character is a teenage boy fed up with life, who is guided by a supernatural force and given great power. Both leads seemingly find themselves on the path to becoming a deity. However, while Light Yagami uses his powers for diabolic ends, killing anyone he suspects of doing anything wrong while being observed by a shinigami, Mirai Kakehashi is guided by an apparently more benevolent force." He also writes that the series is an example of a death game, citing the death of one of the God candidates in the second chapter.


title: Platinum End

text: Writing for "The Fandom Post" Jarius Taylor gave the series a B+ rating and compared "Platinum End" to "Future Diary" writing: "while I don't have too much doubt it'll be stronger overall, the overt edginess here isn't something I was quite expecting from Ohba. Still, it's a pretty interesting read from beginning to end, and there's a lot of potential in terms of both thriller aspects and the overall theme. Hopefully, it'll be able to differentiate itself from "Future Diary" more going forward, but for now the idea of Ohba and Obata taking a crack at their own version of it seems pretty good to me."


title: The Fisher King

text: The Fisher King is a 1991 American fantasy comedy-drama film written by Richard LaGravenese and directed by Terry Gilliam. Starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, with Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer, and Michael Jeter in supporting roles, the film tells the story of a radio shock jock who tries to find redemption by helping a man whose life he inadvertently shattered. It explores "the intermingling of New York City's usually strictly separated social strata" and has been described as "a modern-day Grail Quest that fused New York romantic comedy with timeless fantasy".


title: The Fisher King

text: The film was released in the United States by TriStar Pictures on September 20, 1991. It received generally favorable reviews from critics and grossed $72 million on a $24 million budget. At the 64th Academy Awards the film earned five nominations, including Best Actor for Williams, with Ruehl winning Best Supporting Actress.


title: The Fisher King

text: Jack Lucas, a narcissistic, misanthropic shock jock, becomes suicidal and despondent when his insensitive on-air comments inadvertently prompt a mentally unstable caller to commit a mass murder–suicide at a Manhattan restaurant. Three years later, Jack is working for his girlfriend Anne in a video store, and is in a mostly drunken, depressed state.


title: The Fisher King

text: One night, while on a bender, he contemplates suicide. However, he is attacked and nearly set on fire by thugs who mistake him for a homeless person. He is rescued by Parry, a delusional homeless man who claims his mission is to find the Holy Grail.


title: The Fisher King

text: Parry tries to enlist Jack's help in getting the grail, explaining that the Fisher King was charged by God with finding the Holy Grail, but incurred an incapacitating wound for his sin of pride. "A Fool asks the King why he suffers, and when the King says he is thirsty, the Fool gives him a cup of water to drink. The King realizes the cup is the Grail and asks, 'How did you find what my brightest and bravest could not?' The Fool said 'I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty.'"


title: The Fisher King

text: Jack is initially reluctant but acquiesces after learning that he is partially responsible for Parry's current condition. Parry, whose real name is Henry Sagan, had been a teacher at Hunter College. After witnessing his wife's gruesome death at the same mass shooting Jack had provoked, Henry had a psychotic break and became catatonic. When he woke, he had taken the persona of Parry and became obsessed with the legend of the Fisher King. With Parry as his shielding persona, mentions of reality panic him and he is continually haunted by a terrifying, hallucinatory Red Knight, from a distorted memory of his wife's head exploding from a shotgun blast.


title: The Fisher King

text: Jack seeks to redeem himself by helping Parry find love again. Lydia, a shy woman with whom Parry is smitten, is prodded into meeting Parry and joining Jack and Anne for a dinner date. Afterwards, Parry walks Lydia home and declares his love for her; she reciprocates, but the brush with reality summons the Red Knight. Fleeing his vision and the memory of his wife's murder, he is ambushed by the same thugs against whom he had defended Jack. Beaten mercilessly, Parry becomes catatonic again. Jack, feeling whole again after 'saving' Parry, breaks up with Anne and begins to rebuild his career, but has a crisis of conscience during a sitcom pitch after snubbing a vagrant who had previously done him a favor.


title: The Fisher King

text: After finding out what happened to Parry, Jack dons Parry's clothing and infiltrates the Upper East Side castle of a famous architect and retrieves the "Grail", a trophy which Parry believes to be the real Grail. During the theft, Jack finds the architect unconscious from attempting suicide. He triggers the alarm while leaving, alerting authorities and saving the man's life.


title: The Fisher King

text: When he brings the “Grail” to Parry, Parry regains consciousness and tells a silent Jack he's ready to miss his wife now. Lydia comes to visit Parry in the hospital; she finds him awake and leading the patients of the ward in a rendition of "How About You?" with Jack. Parry and Lydia embrace, and Jack reconciles with Anne, telling her that he loves her. She slaps him, but then grabs and kisses him. Later, Jack and Parry lie naked in Central Park gazing at the clouds, as a fireworks display over New York presents "The End".


title: The Fisher King

text: During an appearance on an episode of "The Directors", Gilliam stated that he wanted to do the film because he was tired of big budget special effects films, such as his previous film "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen", which went over budget and cost over $45 million, nearly twice as much as "The Fisher King"'s budget of $24 million. This was the first film Gilliam directed in which he was not involved in writing the screenplay, as well as his first film not to feature any other members of Monty Python.


title: The Fisher King

text: According to "The Directors" episode, Gilliam came up with the scene where Robin Williams and Amanda Plummer meet during a huge waltz in the middle of Grand Central Terminal, because he felt the scene LaGravenese had written, in which a large group of people in a crowded subway listen to a homeless woman sing with a beautiful voice that fills the room, wasn't working. He was hesitant about this at first, because his original intentions were just to shoot the script and the waltz would make it "a Terry Gilliam film". The scene was shot in one night with a mix of professional extras and passengers alighting from the train.


title: The Fisher King

text: The film did moderately well at the box office, with a gross of almost $42 million in the United States and Canada, and an international gross of $30.5 milion, for a worldwide total of $72.4 million.


title: The Fisher King

text: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote that the film "sweeps you up on waves of humor, heartbreak and ravishing romance". John Simon of the conservative National Review described "The Fisher King" as "one of the most nonsensical, pretentious, mawkishly cloying movies I ever had to wretch through."


title: The Fisher King

text: Following Robin Williams' death, a re-appraisal of the film on RogerEbert.com stated that "no Williams film can hit harder — or be so fully consoling in such heartbreaking circumstances — than "The Fisher King"", where his character "gradually simmers to a boil of bristling insecurities, terror and agonizing internalized pain".