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-'''Guilt''' is primarily an [[emotion]] experienced by people who believe they have done something wrong. From a legal perspective it can also refer to the condition of having done something morally or legally wrong, regardless of how one feels about it.
-==Definitions of guilt==
-===In psychology===
-In [[psychology]] and ordinary language, guilt is an affective state in which one experiences [[conflict]] at having done something one believes one should not have done (or, conversely, not having done something one believes one should have done). It gives rise to a feeling that does not go away easily, driven by [[conscience]]. [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]] described this as the result of a struggle between the [[Ego, superego, and id|ego]] and the [[superego]] (parental [[imprinting]]). Guilt and its causes, merits, and demerits is a common theme in [[psychology]] and [[psychiatry]]. It is often associated with [[Clinical depression|depression]].
-===In criminal law===
-In [[criminal law]], guilt is entirely externally defined by the [[state]], or more generally a “court of law.” Being “guilty” of a criminal offense, means one has committed a violation of criminal law, or performed all the elements of the offense set out by a criminal statute. ''See generally United States v. Rivera-Gomez,'' 67 F.3d 993, 997 (1st Cir. 1995).. The determination that one has committed that violation is made by an external body—a “court of law”—and is therefore as definitive as the record-keeping of the body. Therefore, the most basic definition is fundamentally circular: a person is guilty of violating a law if a court says he or she is.
-Guilt in criminal law is also more complex however, since it is a reflection of the actual function of society, and its ability to condemn individuals’ actions, actions which those individuals chose to engage in and therefore deserve external judgment.
-“An adjudication of guilt is more than a factual determination that the defendant pulled a trigger, took a bicycle, or sold heroin. It is a moral judgment that the individual is blameworthy. Our collective conscience does not allow punishment where it cannot impose blame. Our concept of blameworthiness rests on assumptions that are older than the Republic: man is naturally endowed with these two great faculties, understanding and liberty of will. Historically, our substantive criminal law is based on a theory of punishing the viscious will. It postulates a free agent confronted with a choice between doing right and wrong, and choosing freely to do wrong."
-''UNITED STATES v. LYONS'', 739 F.2d 994, 995 (5th Cir. 1984) (Rubin, J. dissenting) (internal citations omitted).
-''See also'' Cotton, Michael,  A FOOLISH CONSISTENCY: KEEPING DETERMINISM OUT OF THE CRIMINAL LAW, 15 B.U. Pub. Int. L.J. 1 (“A substantial body of scholarship has concerned itself with the importance of free will to the theory of the criminal law. Even given the importance of the subject, the quantity of attention is surprising because of the lack of fundamental disagreement among scholars, who overwhelmingly endorse the criminal law's assumption of free will.”)
-Also see [[malum in se]], [[malum prohibitum]].
-==Causes of guilt==
-Some thinkers have theorized that guilt is used as a tool of [[social control]]. Since guilty people feel they are undeserving, they are less likely to assert their rights and prerogatives. Thus, those in power seek to cultivate a sense of guilt among the populace, in order to make them more tractable. This was a theme in [[Eric Hoffer|Eric Hoffer's]] ''[[The True Believer]]''. [[Ayn Rand]] claimed that [[Christian sexual morality]] served a similar purpose.
-Some evolutionary psychologists have said that guilt is a rational human emotion selected by evolution. If a person feels guilty when he harms another or even fails to reciprocate kindness, he is more likely not to harm others or become too selfish; in this way, he reduces the chances of retaliation by members of his tribe and thereby increases his survival prospects, and those of the tribe. As with any other emotion, guilt can be manipulated to control or influence others.
-Another common notion is that guilt is assigned by social processes such as a [[jury trial]], i.e. that it is a strictly legal concept. Thus the ruling of a jury that [[O. J. Simpson]] or [[Julius Rosenberg]] was "guilty" or "not guilty" is taken as an actual judgement by the whole society that they must act as if they were so. By corollary, the ruling that such a person is "not guilty" may not be so taken, due to the asymmetry that assumes one is [[innocent until proven guilty]] and prefers to take the [[risk]] of freeing a guilty party over convicting innocents.
-Still others -- often, but not always, theists of one type or another -- believe that the origin of guilt comes from violating universal principles of right and wrong. In most instances, people who believe this also acknowledge that, even though there is proper guilt from doing 'wrong' instead of doing 'right,' people endure all sorts of guilty feelings that don't stem from violating universal moral principles.
-===Collective guilt===
-''Collective guilt'' is the idea that a collection of humans or a human institution can bear guilt above and beyond the guilt of particular members. Collective guilt is regarded by some as impossible because it seems to presuppose that collections of humans can have traits, such as intentions and knowledge, that strictly speaking are claimed to be truly possessed only by individuals.{{fact}} However, there are those who consider such judgements on collective guilt to be overly [[reductionism|reductionistic]] and accept the existence of collective guilt, collective responsibility, etc.{{fact}} Humans seem to have a natural tendency to attribute collective guilt, usually with tragic results. History is filled with examples of a wronged man who tried to avenge himself, not on the person who has wronged him, but on other members of the wrong-doer's family, or ethnic group, or religion, or nation, or tribe, or army. Likewise collective punishment is often practiced in different settings, including schools (punishing a whole class for the actions of a single unknown pupil) and, more transcendentally, in situation of war, economic sanctions, etc, presupposing the existence of collective guilt. [[Terrorism]] is commonly rationalized by its practitioners on ideas of collective guilt and responsibility.
-Many nations have laws holding corporations, but not the individual decision-makers within them, responsible for certain kinds of acts. For example, in the United States corporations can be fined for violating pollution laws, but the individuals who actually ordered and directed the polluting activity may not themselves be regarded as having broken any laws, since they act as corporate officers on behalf of the shareholders.
-This is generally known as the "[[Piercing the corporate veil|corporate veil]]".
-==Cultural views of guilt==
-Traditional [[Culture of Japan|Japanese society]] and [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek society]] are sometimes said to be "[[shame]]-based" rather than "guilt-based" in that the social consequences of "getting caught" are seen as more important than the individual feelings or experiences of the agent.  This may lead to more of a focus on [[etiquette]] than [[ethics]] as understood in Western civilization.  This leads some to question why then we would adapt the word ''[[ethos]]'' from [[Ancient Greek]] when their norms are so different from ours. ''A [[m:Simple View of Ethics and Morals|meta-wikipedia article]] asks this.''
-[[Christianity]] and [[Islam]] inherit most notions of guilt from [[Judaism]], [[Ancient Persia|Persia]]n and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] ideas, mostly as interpreted through [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] who adapted [[Plato]]'s ideas to Christianity. The [[Latin]] word for guilt is '''culpa''', a word sometimes seen in law literature, e.g. in "mea culpa", "I take [[responsibility]]".  The Latin word for [[authority]] assumes a high degree of responsibility, the English word "[[province]]" being a close equivalent.
-===Guilt in literature===
-Guilt was a main theme in [[John Steinbeck]]'s ''[[East of Eden]]'', [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s ''[[Crime and Punishment]]'', Tennessee Williams' ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire]],'' [[William Shakespeare]]'s play [[Macbeth]], [[Edgar Allen Poe]]'s "[[The Tell-Tale Heart]]," and many other works of literature.  It was a major theme in all works by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and is a nearly universal concern of novelists, who explore inner [[life]] and [[secret]]s.
-==Dealing with guilt==
-Guilt can sometimes be remedied by [[punishment]] (a common action and advised or required in many [[legal code|legal]] and moral codes), by [[forgiveness]] (as in [[transformative justice]]), or by sincere [[remorse]] (as with [[confession]] in [[Catholicism]] or [[restorative justice]]).  Law does not usually accept the agent's [[self-punishment]], but some ancient codes did so:  in [[Athens]] the [[accused]] was permitted to propose his or her own remedy, which might in fact be a [[reward]], while the [[accuser]] proposed another, and the [[jury]] chose between.  This forced the accused to effectively bet on his support in the community - as [[Socrates]] did when he proposed "room and board in the town hall" as his fate.  He lost, and drank [[conium|hemlock]], a [[poison]], as advised by his accuser.
-==People lacking all sense of guilt==
-[[Antisocial personality disorder|Psychopaths]] typically exhibit a "lack of remorse or guilt" in the face of wrongdoing. This is seen by psychologists as part of a lack of moral reasoning in comparison with the majority of humans, an inability to evaluate situations in a moral framework and an inability to develop emotional bonds with other people.
-==See also==
-{{Wikiquote}}
-* [[Catholic guilt]]
-* [[good faith]]
-* [[helpfulness]]
-* [[shame]]
-* [[survivor guilt]]
-* [[Fear]]
-* [[Freud]]
-* [[Nietzsche]]'s critique of the "bad conscious"
-{{Emotion-footer}}
-[[Category:Emotion]]
-[[Category:Criminology topics]]
-[[de:Schuld]]
-[[fr:Culpabilité]]
-[[io:Kulpozeso]]
-[[nl:Schuldgevoel]]
-[[ru:Вина]]
-[[sv:Skuld (etik)]]
-[[zh:罪責]]