Harmcausing

Harmcausing is the attribute of something that has the potential to cause harm or the act of causing harm. It can refer to individuals, organizations, processes, devices, or systems that produce adverse effects on the well-being, health, property, or environment of others.

The scope includes physical harm (injury or fatality), psychological harm (trauma, stress), social harm (reputational damage, discrimination), financial harm (loss, fraud), and environmental harm (pollution, habitat destruction).

Harmcausing can result from actions or omissions, intentional or negligent. It can arise from design choices, operational failures, policy gaps, or inadequate risk controls. The harmcausing potential is often analyzed in terms of likelihood and severity to guide mitigation.

In practice, harmcausing is addressed through safety engineering, risk management, ethics, and regulation. Responsibility may extend to individuals, organizations, manufacturers, or institutions depending on accountability and foreseeability. Law often distinguishes intentional harm from negligent harm, as well as direct harm from downstream or indirect harm.

Examples include physical assault causing injury, medical errors causing harm to patients, harassment or discrimination harming social standing, product defects leading to injury, or environmental pollution harming ecosystems. Preventive measures include design for safety, informed consent, monitoring, reporting obligations, and corrective actions.

As a concept, harmcausing emphasizes the outcomes of actions and systems rather than motives alone, complicating debates over risk, proportionality, and responsibility. It is used across disciplines such as safety science, ethics, law, and public policy to identify and reduce adverse effects.