Cui bono

Cui bono link

Cui bono?, literally "to whom is it a benefit?", is a Latin phrase about identifying crime suspects. It expresses the view that crimes are oftentimes committed to benefit their perpetrators, especially financially. Which party benefits may not be obvious, and there may be a scapegoat.

However, the argument based on the cui bono principle alone can also lead to the fallacy cum hoc ergo propter hoc ("with this, therefore because of this") , since the simultaneous presence of an interest and an event that serves this interest cannot be used to infer the causality of the event, which may also have occurred by interested third parties or by mere coincidence.

In the modern age, the principle of asking cui bono has become an indispensable part of criminology, political analysis and history. When an investigation doesn't follow up on cui bono, it may be an indication that something is fishy.