Amelia is nine years-old and has been talking with her dad about accidents and whether some people can be responsible for things even if what they did wasn't on purpose. Some of this discussion had to do with questions about our intentions and how our motives play a role in what we do and what we're responsible for doing. After some discussion, Amelia came up with some cases to tease out some of the issues and get a better handle on some of the questions she had. She then decided to contact Russ Shafer-Landau to help get to the bottom things. Here's Amelia's case and questions:
Suppose a kid is winding up to throw a baseball through a window of his grumpy neighbor's house. The kid's sister tries to stop him from throwing the baseball and bumps into him to knock the ball down on the ground. But her bumping into him causes the baseball to fly right into the window and the window shatters! Are either of the kids guilty for breaking the window? She didn't mean to break it, but it seems like she caused the ball to hit the window. Can you really be guilty for an accident? On the other hand, the boy was winding up to throw the ball and he seems guilty because he wanted to throw the ball. But he didn't really make the ball break the window. Who is really guilty for breaking the window?
That's a wonderful case that raises some fascinating questions! Here's my take. We can separate the issue of who caused the window to break from the question of who, if anyone, is guilty for that bad result. The sister's action and her brother's action, taken together, caused the window to shatter. She didn't mean for that to happen; her brother did. But that doesn't affect who caused what. Together, they both caused the window to break. Since the sister wanted to prevent that bad outcome, she deserves some credit, a pat on the back, for her good intentions and for trying to stop her brother from breaking the window. Her brother deserves a time-out and a good talking to, because he was trying to do something bad and he did it, even though it didn't go exactly according to plan. As I'm reading your story, he would have broken the window even if his sister hadn't done anything. So he's guilty and his sister isn't. That doesn't answer your more general question - can you be guilty for an accident? Yes, you can. Suppose you are 9 years old and decide to take your parents' car out for a spin. (Don't do this.) If you crash the car, you're on the hook - even if you didn't mean to cause any harm. Since you didn't think of the possible harm you could cause, it was an accident. But you should have thought about it, and this, together with the harm you caused, means that you get a time out (or worse).
Lesson: don't take your parents' car out for a spin until you're at least 12 years old!