Wrongdoing

"Wrongdoers" redirects here. For the Norma Jean album, see Wrongdoers (album).
"Wrong" redirects here. For other uses, see Wrong (disambiguation).

A wrong or wrength (from Old English wrang – 'crooked')[1] is an act that is illegal or immoral.[2] Legal wrongs are usually quite clearly defined in the law of a state or jurisdiction. They can be divided into civil wrongs and crimes (or criminal offenses) in common law countries,[2] while civil law countries tend to have some additional categories, such as contraventions.

Moral wrong is an underlying concept for legal wrong. Some moral wrongs are punishable by law, for example, rape or murder.[2] Other moral wrongs have nothing to do with law but are related to unethical behaviours.[3] On the other hand, some legal wrongs, such as many types of parking offences, could hardly be classified as moral wrongs.[2]

  1. ^ "crime". Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d Elizabeth A. Martin (2003). Oxford Dictionary of Law (7 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198607563.
  3. ^ Krystallis, Ilias; Locatelli, Giorgio (2022-09-01). "Normalizing White-Collar Wrongdoing in Professional Service Firms". Journal of Management in Engineering. 38 (5): 04022049. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0001079. hdl:11311/1228318. ISSN 1943-5479. S2CID 250326876.