What does "innocent" mean?

Like in a war or crime context?

Does it mean they haven't done anything bad, or does it simply mean they're uninvolved? For example, if a movie theater was blown up, and one of the victims happened to be a murderer, he would still be considered innocent in that context, wouldn't he?

reply to post by Donnie Darko


In a war or crime context, it's situational. Meaning, responsible for wrong doing for a specific incident. By the way, there's a difference between "not guilty" and "innocent" in a legal context.

Morally, it means purity. The opposite of innocence is corruption.

In Clint Eastwood's famous line, "We all have it coming, kid."

In the example you cite, I believe that the murderer would be considered to be an innocent victim, as he was not involved in the bombing in which he died.

However, given that he was the perpetrator of such a heinous crime, he might also be considered to be a victim of poetic justice.

Idioms: poetic justice

An outcome in which virtue is rewarded and evil punished, often in an especially appropriate or ironic manner. For example, It was poetic justice for the known thief to go to jail for the one crime he didn't commit. [Early 1700s]

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