Common Justice

Toward a Humane, Event-Centered Language for Talking about People Involved in Crime and Violence.

Common Justice uses the terms “harmed party” and “responsible party” to describe the person who survives harm and the person who causes harm, respectively.

Harmed party is the person harmed in a given crime (aka “victim”). This term recognizes someone’s role in a given event and acknowledges that that role does not constitute the person’s entire identity. A harmed party is owed certain things by the responsible party and others as a result of the harm he or she endured.

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