extenuatio

Extenuatio, or extenuation, is a term used to describe the act or effect of making something seem less serious or blameworthy. In English, the noun extenuation or extenuation is often applied to reducing guilt, liability, or penalty, especially through mitigating circumstances or justificatory factors. The word originates from Latin extenuatio, from extenuare “to make thin, lessen,” built on ex- “out, away” and tenuis “thin, slight.”

In legal contexts, extenuation refers to mitigating circumstances that reduce the degree of criminal liability or the severity of a sentence. Examples commonly cited include lack of intent, duress, impaired capacity, minor role in the offense, or timely remorse. Extenuating factors are weighed in sentencing to produce a proportionate penalty, but they do not erase guilt.

In ethics and theology, extenuation describes conditions that lessen moral culpability for a wrongdoing. This use distinguishes between excusing an act and reducing the blame attributed to it, often in tandem with repentance or forgiveness.

Historically, discussions of extenuation have appeared in canon law and early secular legal traditions as part of broader tensions between justice, mercy, and proportional punishment. Today, the concept remains central in many jurisdictions as the idea of mitigating or extenuating circumstances, alongside formal notions of exculpation and mitigation. See also mitigating factors, exculpation, and proportionality in punishment.