Innocence

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Innocence

Innocence is a term used to indicate a general lack of guilt

Guilt

Guilt is a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person understanding or belief - whether justified or not - that he or she has violated a Morality standard, and is responsible for that violation....
, with respect to any kind of crime

Crime

Societies define Crime as the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some Government or force may ultimately prescribe a punishment.The word crime originates from the Latin crimen , from the Latin root cerno and Greek ????? = "I judge"....
, sin

Sin

Sin is a term used mainly in a religion context to describe an act that violates a morality rule, or the state of having committed such a violation....
, or wrongdoing. In a legal context

Criminal law

The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply....
, innocence refers to the lack of legal guilt

Guilt (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 that one has committed a violation of criminal law, or performed all the elements of the offense set out by a criminal statute....
of an individual, with respect to a crime.

Innocence can also refer to a state of unknowing, where one's experience

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
is lesser, in either a relative view to social peers, or by an absolute comparison to a more common normative scale.

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Quotations

Innocence once lost cannot be regained.

Lucifer in The Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman

Encyclopedia

Innocence is a term used to indicate a general lack of guilt

Guilt

Crime

Sin

Sin is a term used mainly in a religion context to describe an act that violates a morality rule, or the state of having committed such a violation....
, or wrongdoing. In a legal context

Criminal law

Guilt (law)

Experience

Ignorance

Ignorance is the state in which a person lacks knowledge, sophistication or intelligence. The word 'Ignorant' is an adjective describing a person in that state....
, it is generally viewed as a positive term, connoting an optimistic view of the world, in particular one where the lack of knowledge stems from a lack of wrongdoing, whereas greater knowledge comes from doing wrong. This connotation may be connected with a popular false etymology

False etymology

A false etymology is an assumed or postulated etymology that current consensus among scholars of historical linguistics holds to be incorrect. Many false etymologies may also be described as folk etymologies, the distinction being that folk etymologies are widely believed to be true, and of anonymous origin....
explaining "innocent" as meaning "not knowing" (Latin noscere). The actual etymology is from general negation prefix in- and the Latin nocere, "evil" or "guilty".

People who lack the mental capacity to understand the nature of their acts may be regarded as innocent regardless of their behavior. From this meaning comes the term innocent to refer to a child under the age of reason

Age of reason (canon law)

The age of reason, also called the age of discretion, is the age at which children become capable of moral responsibility. On completion of the seventh year a minor is presumed to have the use of reason , but mental retardation or insanity could prevent some individuals from ever reaching it....
, or a person, of any age, who is severely mentally disabled

Developmental disability

Developmental disability is a term used to describe life-long Disability attributable to mental and/or physical or combination of mental and physical List of disabilities, manifested prior to age twenty-two....
.

In some cases, the term of "innocence" connotes a pejorative

Pejorative

Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt. When used as an adjective, pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, dyslogistic, and contemptuous....
meaning, where an assumed level of experience dictates common discourse or baseline qualifications for entry into another, different, social experience. Since experience is the prime factor in determining a person's point of view

Perspective (cognitive)

Perspective in theory of cognition is the choice of a wiktionary:context or a reference from which to sense, categorize, Measurement or codify experience, cohesively forming a coherent belief, typically for comparing with another....
, innocence is often also used to imply an ignorance or lack of personal experience

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
.

The lamb

LaMB

LaMB is an upcoming animated film produced by Animax directed by Ryosuke Tei with the original script written by Carmelo S. J. Juinio, one of the finalists of the 2007 Animax awards Pan-Asia Animation competition , that will be broadcasted across several countries in 2009 in high-definition television....
is a commonly used symbol of innocence. In Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
, for example, Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
is referred to as the "Lamb of God", thus emphasizing his sinless nature. Other symbols of innocence include children

Child

A child is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor , otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority....
, virgins

Virginity

A Virgin is, originally, a woman who has never had sexual intercourse. Virginity is the state of being a virgin. The term has traditionally also been applied to men....
, acacia

Acacia

Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Sweden botanist Carolus Linnaeus in 1773....
branches (especially in Freemasonry

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal and service organizations that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around 5 million ....
),, non-sexual nudity

Nudity

Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing.Based on scientific research into louse it is estimated that humans have been wearing clothing for 650,000 years....
, and the color white

White

White is a color, the Color vision#Physiology of color perception which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in near equal amount and with high brightness compared to the surroundings....
.

Innocence

See also