The requirement to examine systemic structures and constraints before assigning individual blame, recognizing that harm often reflects unjust systems, not merely personal moral failure.
Sor Juana's analysis of her own constraints—the intellectual limitations imposed on women, the control of religious authority, the limits of her autonomy—model how systemic examination clarifies the nature of blame. She understood that her struggles were not merely personal failings but responses to unjust structures. Applied to justice, this principle demands examining: What systems enabled this harm? What constraints or pressures shaped the choices made? Were certain people set up to fail by structural inequality? Restorative justice increasingly incorporates this analysis, recognizing that individual accountability coexists with systemic responsibility. Punitive systems often isolate individual blame, treating people as freely choosing agents while ignoring structural forces. This false isolation serves powerful interests while unfairly burdening those already disadvantaged by systems. Sor Juana's example shows that fair blame requires seeing the whole picture. Some harms reflect individual choices that merit accountability; others reflect systemic injustice that requires structural change. Justice requires distinguishing between them. Addressing harm adequately may require simultaneously holding individuals accountable and transforming the systems that shaped them.
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