What is the word for this?

[the_tortoise]

What is the word for behavior that is damaging/hurtful and wrong and inexcusable but is not malicious?

There is no agreement in laws across jurisdictions let alone in ordinary speech about whether or not something has to be intended to harm/malicious to be called “abuse” so is there another word that acknowledges the harmfulness and wrongness of the way someone treats another person over whom they have power regardless of the harmful-behaving person’s intentions or understanding?

 

[Pats]

I know when it involves breaking a traffic law, they say 'ignorance is no excuse'. That should apply when it comes to harming others.
But, on the other hand, different things hurt different people and how are you to know what those things might be unless they tell you. Then once they tell you, it's no longer ignorance.

 

[Autistamatic]

I can't think of a word that encapsulates all those concepts.
I think "negligent" or maybe "oblivious" are the closest I can think of right now, but they would need a little context.

 

[Pats]

I can't think of a word that encapsulates all those concepts.
I think "negligent" or maybe "oblivious" are the closest I can think of right now, but they would need a little context.

Negligent, I think, would be the legal term.

 

[the_tortoise]

I mean like saying and doing things that most people and all healthy people would agree are wrong and harmful in order to get someone else to do/be who you want, or as a response to their failure to do/be what you want. But with the idea that it is for the hurt person’s own good, or justified because the committing-hurt person is upset (in a context where all the things the hurtful-behaving person is doing would not be tolerated if someone did it to them).

Things that if they were done with harmful intent and understanding of the hurt they cause would unequivocally constitute abuse.

Sorry to be so vague, I understand that makes it difficult to answer.

 

[Streetwise]

What is the word for behavior that is damaging/hurtful and wrong and inexcusable but is not malicious?

There is no agreement in laws across jurisdictions let alone in ordinary speech about whether or not something has to be intended to harm/malicious to be called “abuse” so is there another word that acknowledges the harmfulness and wrongness of the way someone treats another person over whom they have power regardless of the harmful-behaving person’s intentions or understanding?

An answer I'm getting a lot is ignorant

 

[Mary Terry]

Culpable negligence? As in legal liability for unintended harm caused to another?

 

[the_tortoise]

Doesn’t “negligence” apply to acts of omission only (i.e. not doing things and causing harm by not doing them) rather than acts of commission (actively doing something that causes harm)?

 

[Pats]

I mean like saying and doing things that most people and all healthy people would agree are wrong and harmful in order to get someone else to do/be who you want, or as a response to their failure to do/be what you want. But with the idea that it is for the hurt person’s own good, or justified because the committing-hurt person is upset (in a context where all the things the hurtful-behaving person is doing would not be tolerated if someone did it to them).

Sorry to be so vague, I understand that makes it difficult to answer.

No, you weren't vague. If the person doing the harm is truly unaware of the harm they are doing, I think ignorance or negligence WOULD be the word to define it. Sometimes accident, but that would not be ongoing.
There are so many people that fir the description in your thread, and they have to be completely ignorant or it's got to be malicious. I know several who would defend themselves by claiming ignorance, but I think deep down, it IS malicious. Maybe unintentional maliciousness, being that it's below the surface and they're not completely aware of it.

 

[Pats]

Doesn’t “negligence” apply to acts of omission only (i.e. not doing things and causing harm by not doing them) rather than acts of commission (actively doing something that causes harm)?

I thought manslaughter - involuntary manslaughter. So involuntary?

 

[Bolletje]

I might use two words and say oblivious abrasiveness. Or ignorant malevolence.

 

[tree]

unintentional or unconscious disregard?

 

[the_tortoise]

I thought manslaughter - involuntary manslaughter. So involuntary?

That works if I use the word “abuse” - “involuntary” or “unintentional “ abuse.

I was wondering if there was word other than “abuse” that communicates the harm and wrongness in nature of the dynamic in the same way “abuse” does, but without the assumption that it is done on purpose with intent to harm that you so often have as part of the definition of “abuse”.

 

[the_tortoise]

Maybe there is no getting away from qualifiers and the use of many words.

 

[Bolletje]

Maybe there is no getting away from qualifiers and the use of many words.

I am scouring the corners of my mind for the right words! They have to exist.

 

[Pats]

Maybe there is no getting away from qualifiers and the use of many words.

You might be looking for a single word to define two different words. There are many different words for abuse, too. and it depends on the type of abuse. Mistreatment.

 

[Streetwise]

Maybe there is no getting away from qualifiers and the use of many words.

This might help you? I was watching a soap opera and the character had schizo affective disorder ,her son had been a victim of negligence but not malicious to me if you read this compare schizoaffective disorder to the person's behaviour do they seem malicious?

 

[the_tortoise]

I don’t think the person who inspired this thread has Schizoaffective Disorder.

 

[the_tortoise]

You might be looking for a single word to define two different words. There are many different words for abuse, too. and it depends on the type of abuse. Mistreatment.

If it were called abuse it would be emotional/psychological abuse.

Mistreatment maybe works but does not capture the power dynamic or the pattern over time.

 

[BraidedPony]

Toxic?