complicity
n. uncountablen. the act of helping someone else do something wrong or illegal. Even if you do not do the crime yourself, you are involved because you knew about it or helped it happen.
n. the state of being involved with others in an illegal activity or wrongdoing. Often implies a moral failure to intervene or a silent partnership in a transgressive act.
His silence was seen as complicity in the crime.
The investigation aimed to determine the extent of the manager's complicity in the accounting fraud that ruined the firm.
The documentary explores the public's complicity in the environmental crisis, arguing that consumer habits provide the necessary fuel for corporate negligence.
From French complicité, from Middle French, from Old French complice (“accomplice”), from Late Latin complic-, stem of complex (“partner, confederate”), from Latin complicō (“fold together”).
Commonly paired with the preposition 'in' to indicate the specific act or crime.
his complicity of the thefthis complicity in the theftComplicity takes the preposition 'in' rather than 'of' when referring to the activity.