Innocence (guiltlessness)
Innocence, often understood as guiltlessness, is a multifaceted concept that spans various fields, including law, philosophy, religion, and popular culture. Central to legal discourse, the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" underscores the presumption of innocence in the judicial system, particularly in the United States, reflecting a fundamental human rights tenet. This contrasts with the notion of guilt, which can evoke feelings of remorse after wrongdoing and serves as a justification for punishment.
In a broader context, innocence is associated with a state of naivety or lack of exposure to the harsh realities of life, often linked to the experience of growing up and the thematic "loss of innocence" prevalent in literature and art. Works like *To Kill a Mockingbird* and films like *Moonlight* illustrate this transition from youth to maturity. Furthermore, historical events, such as Pearl Harbor or significant assassinations, are viewed as collective losses of innocence for nations, marking a shift in perception and responsibility on the global stage.
Philosophically, figures like Jean-Jacques Rousseau have posited that individuals start as inherently innocent, only to be corrupted by societal influences. This contrasts with some religious doctrines that assert a fundamental sinfulness at birth, necessitating a return to innocence through confession and repentance. Overall, the concept of innocence invites diverse interpretations and plays a crucial role in individual and collective narratives across cultures.
Subject Terms
Innocence (guiltlessness)
The concept of innocence encompasses a great number of fields, specifically the areas of law, popular culture, religion, history, philosophy, psychology, and others. Other than the idea of innocence as it applies to an explanation or proof of wrongdoing, the term itself can mean the end of one phase of being and the emergence of another. The opposite of innocence is guilt, and this term applies to two concepts: the remorse one might feel after committing a crime, and the term guilty, which is the justification of why one might be punished for a crime.
Background
In the United States, criminals are presumed "innocent until proven guilty." In other words, an accused person is automatically innocent before being judged, and it is only through proving their guilt beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law that they are seen as the undisputed perpetrator of a crime. This concept has been adopted by the United Nations and incorporated into the organization’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
One of the only times when a person is proven to be the perpetrator of a crime but is technically innocent is when they are found to be innocent by reason of insanity. This concept has its origins in the M’Naghten case, where a Scottish man, Daniel M’Naghten, was proven to be the murderer of the secretary to the prime minister; however, his motivation for doing so was that he believed the prime minister (whom he had initially intended to shoot) was plotting to destroy him both financially and personally. Therefore, he was considered delusional, and after nine witnesses in his trial testified that he was insane, his charges were dropped. In the United States, the definition of the insanity defense was made stricter, partly due to demands from outraged citizens, after the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
In the famous Nuremberg Trials that occurred after World War II, the concept of innocence changed dramatically. Those in Nazi Germany who were responsible for "crimes against humanity," such as the attempted extermination of Jewish people in Europe and the use of concentration camps, used the defense that they were simply following orders when they committed their crimes. The victors of World War II vehemently claimed that this was not a rational defense, and the United Nations passed Nuremberg Principle IV, stating that acting on orders from a superior or even the government did not absolve a person of guilt for any crimes committed.
Loss of Innocence
Innocence can also be defined as a state of being in which a person has not yet encountered evil, or simply the harsh realities of the world, and may as a result have a somewhat naïve outlook. This state of being can become more complicated and difficult after a certain event, referred to as a "loss of innocence." This is most often connected to the process of growing up, though it can take many forms. While many examples can be drawn from reality, the concept of the loss of innocence is perhaps most commonly referenced in works of art, literature, and pop culture.
One of the key themes in Western fiction, for example, is the coming-of-age story (also known as a bildungsroman) in which the central character or characters transition from a relatively innocent youth to a more experienced adulthood. This transition or psychological growth can be depicted as positive, bittersweet, or negative. Famous examples include the novels Great Expectations (1861), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), The Catcher in the Rye (1951), Lord of the Flies (1954), To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), and the Harry Potter series. The coming-of-age story is also popular in film, with well-known examples from different eras including Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy (1955–59), Rob Reiner's Stand By Me (1986), and Barry Jenkins's Moonlight (2016). Music, painting, and virtually every other art form also have explored the loss of innocence in various ways.
In certain points in history, a nation may be said to undergo a collective loss of innocence, such as, some have argued, the United States after the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941. Before this, the United States had never suffered a significant loss of life at the hands of foreign power on its own soil in its recent history. The country had been able to maintain its stance of innocence and naïveté in avoiding "entanglement in foreign affairs," as President George Washington put it, but after the bombing, the people and government of the United States realized that they could not avoid responsibility as a "responsible actor" on the world stage, and that to maintain their way of life, involvement in foreign affairs was essential. This stance, new at the time, has affected major foreign policy decisions ever since. Other events, including the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have also been analyzed as collective losses of innocence.
The idea of innocence as a social concept was elucidated by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who claimed that a person begins life as an innocent, pure person, and it is only through being influenced by society and the world in general that a person becomes corrupt. He argued that children start off as a blank slate, and the corrupting influences of society change them irreversibly. This notion influenced the widely held perception of children as inherently honest and innocent human beings. Similarly, in the Bible, Adam and Eve are innocent when they are created in the Garden of Eden, but once cast out, they lose their innocence. These Christianity-based views of innocence have long influenced Western philosophy and art, but have been challenged by some later philosophers, sociologists, and others who question the innate "innocence" of children.
Return to Innocence
In contrast to Rousseau’s view, some Christian doctrines state that people are born sinners, and it is only through following the church’s teachings that people are absolved of their inherently sinful ways and become innocent again. Religion can absolve one’s wrongdoings, in effect "wiping the slate clean" and returning a person to a state of innocence. The Roman Catholic doctrine of regular confession and absolution follows this precept.
A similar forgiveness and return to innocence is found in modern substance abuse treatment methods, specifically with twelve-step programs. Addicts involved in such programs are told to confess their wrongdoings to others, and in some cases also to God, in order to obtain forgiveness and proceed, as in Catholicism, with a clean slate. Meanwhile, much Eastern philosophy and religion takes its own view of innocence as a state that can be worked toward or practiced, as established in the I Ching.
Bibliography
Chappell, Sophie Grace. “Innocence.” A Philosopher Looks at Friendship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024. 146–51.
Cooper, Sarah Lucy, ed. Controversies in Innocence Cases in America. Ashgate, 2014.
Dodd, Elizabeth S., and Carl E. Findley III. Innocence Uncovered: Literary and Theological Perspectives. Routledge, 2017.
Le Cudennec, Rodney David. A History of the Lie of Innocence in Literature: Sons Who Become Orphans. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.
Lippke, Richard L. Taming the Presumption of Innocence. Oxford UP, 2016.
Martin, Jacqueline, and Tony Storey. Unlocking Criminal Law. 4th ed. Routledge, 2013.
Nelson, Craig. Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness. Simon, 2016.
Robinson, Kerry H. Innocence, Knowledge, and the Construction of Childhood. Routledge, 2013.
Roland, Paul. The Nuremberg Trials: The Nazis and Their Crimes against Humanity. Arcturus, 2012.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Major Political Writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The "Two Discourses" and the Social Contract. Trans. John T. Scott. U of Chicago P, 2012.