{ "model": { "rank": 2660, "code": "thing-principal-person", "model_id": "vr.tr.principal-person", "name": "principal", "purpose": "(criminal law) any person involved in a criminal offense, regardless of whether the person profits from such involvement", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.PER", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/principal-person/", "tier": 2, "score": 100, "payload": { "layer": "wordnet", "aliases": [ "apache", "absconder", "abettor", "abetter", "accessory", "accessary", "accessory after the fact", "accessory before the fact", "accessory during the fact", "alien absconder", "arsonist", "incendiary", "firebug", "assassin", "assassinator", "bravo", "bagman", "bandit", "brigand", "bank robber", "barnburner", "blackmailer", "extortioner", "extortionist", "booster", "shoplifter", "lifter", "bootlegger", "moonshiner", "briber", "suborner", "bully", "burglar", "butcher", "collaborator", "collaborationist", "quisling", "confederate", "partner in crime", "conspirator" ], "aliasCount": 197, "merged": 100, "knownIn": 0, "facets": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert", "mobility": "not-applicable", "scale": "not-applicable", "affordances": [ "observable" ] }, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "noun.person", "senseRank": 4, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "oewn:2024", "synset": "oewn-10494535-n", "ili": "i92251", "license": "CC BY 4.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-14T01:37:39Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-PRINCIPAL-PERSON", "registryId": "vr.tr.principal-person", "name": "principal", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.PER" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/principal-person/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.principal-person", "name": "principal", "purpose": "Let an agent explain the legal sense of principal and related parties to crime, relay common law distinctions and modern reforms from legal sources, describe the named terms and flag the slang alias, route legal matters to lawyers, and distinguish principals from accessories, accomplices, conspirators and the everyday and financial senses of principal.", "definition": "In the WordNet criminal-law sense, any person directly involved in committing a criminal offence, as distinct from an accessory, with related terms the registry aliases name such as abettor or abetter, who encourages or assists an offence, accessory or accessary, who helps before or after without being present, and absconder, who flees to avoid arrest or bail, while apache is an old slang term for a Parisian street criminal and appears loosely filed; common law traditionally distinguished principals in the first and second degree and accessories before and after the fact, though many jurisdictions have simplified this. This is general legal information, not advice, and specific matters need a qualified lawyer.", "what_it_is_for": "Classifying parties to a crime.", "affordances": [ "explain the legal sense", "relay common law distinctions", "describe named terms", "route legal matters" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Direct involvement", "Distinct from accessories", "Common law degrees", "Often reformed by statute" ], "appearance": "Not a physical object; a legal category applied in criminal cases.", "visual_identification": [ "Person directly involved in a criminal offence", "Apache, absconder, abettor, abetter, accessory, accessary", "Accessories assist without committing the act; accomplices help generally; conspirators agree to a plan; the everyday principal is a chief person; the financial principal is a sum" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "common law degrees", "typical_range": "first and second degree principals", "unit": "note", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "accessories", "typical_range": "before and after the fact", "unit": "note", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "WordNet hypernym", "typical_range": "wrongdoer", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "principals in the first degree", "principals in the second degree", "accessories before the fact", "accessories after the fact" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "wrongdoer", "why": "in WordNet terms" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "accessory", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "accomplice", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "principal (finance)", "why": "different sense" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "WordNet", "value_or_pattern": "oewn-09657157-n", "note": "hypernym of principal (criminal law)" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Criminal codes and common law on parties to crime", "Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 in England and Wales" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Giving legal advice", "Mixing jurisdictions", "Loosely filed slang alias" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What a principal to a crime is.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a principal in criminal law, and how does it differ from accessories, accomplices, conspirators and the everyday and financial senses?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Does someone face a criminal matter, in which case a qualified lawyer should advise?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "terms", "name": "Terms", "description": "Named terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "terms-finding", "name": "Terms", "description": "Terms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do abettor, accessory and absconder mean, and why is apache different?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific term?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "commonlaw", "name": "Common law", "description": "Common law distinctions.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "degrees", "name": "Degrees", "description": "Degrees of principal.", "findings": [ { "id": "degrees-finding", "name": "Degrees", "description": "Degrees.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did common law distinguish principals in the first and second degree?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "accessories", "name": "Accessories", "description": "Accessories.", "findings": [ { "id": "accessories-finding", "name": "Accessories", "description": "Accessories.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do accessories before and after the fact differ?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "modern", "name": "Modern law", "description": "Modern reforms.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "reform", "name": "Reform", "description": "Statutory reform.", "findings": [ { "id": "reform-finding", "name": "Reform", "description": "Reform.", "questions": [ { "text": "How have jurisdictions simplified parties to crime?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the information current?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "liability", "name": "Liability", "description": "Joint liability.", "findings": [ { "id": "liability-finding", "name": "Liability", "description": "Liability.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do accessorial and joint enterprise liability work in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits joint enterprise?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Other senses.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "senses", "name": "Senses", "description": "Other senses.", "findings": [ { "id": "senses-finding", "name": "Senses", "description": "Senses.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do the everyday and financial senses of principal differ from this one?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits principal (finance)?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "slang", "name": "Slang", "description": "Apache slang.", "findings": [ { "id": "slang-finding", "name": "Slang", "description": "Slang.", "questions": [ { "text": "What did apache mean as early twentieth-century Parisian slang?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the information accurate?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "The registry alias apache should be moved to slang or history entries", "Should accessory be a separate entry?", "How should jurisdiction differences be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "occupation or role", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched.", "facetsInferred": false, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a principal, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "(criminal law) any person involved in a criminal offense, regardless of whether the person profits from such involvement", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: apache, absconder, abettor, abetter, accessory, accessary, accessory after the fact, accessory before the fact, accessory during the fact, alien absconder, arsonist, incendiary.", "100 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a principal, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Not recognisable by appearance, and guessing from dress or setting is how an agent gets this wrong. Recognised by qualification, licence or engagement." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "apache", "absconder", "abettor", "abetter", "accessory", "accessary", "accessory after the fact", "accessory before the fact", "accessory during the fact", "alien absconder", "arsonist", "incendiary" ] } ], "standing": "100 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one principal from another, and a principal from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a principal sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a principal from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a principal passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a principal between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a principal, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a principal is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a principal.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a principal and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a principal, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a principal and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a principal sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "competence-and-licence", "name": "Competence, qualification and licence", "description": "What someone must be able to do, and be permitted to do, as principal.", "rationale": "The permission is jurisdictional and the competence is not, and conflating them is how an agent concludes someone may practise when they may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "competences", "name": "Competences and qualifications", "description": "Skills and credentials the role assumes.", "findings": [ { "id": "qualification-record", "name": "Qualifications and how they are evidenced", "description": "What counts as qualified, and what proves it.", "questions": [ { "id": "qualification-record-q01", "text": "What competences and qualifications does principal require, and how is each evidenced?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "qualification-record-q02", "text": "Which qualifications transfer between jurisdictions and which do not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "licensing", "name": "Licensing and the right to practise", "description": "Who grants permission, where it holds, and when it lapses.", "findings": [ { "id": "licence-record", "name": "Licence, issuer and validity", "description": "The permission, its issuer, its territory and its expiry.", "questions": [ { "id": "licence-record-q01", "text": "Who licenses principal, in which territory, and for how long?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "licence-record-q02", "text": "What may an unlicensed person not do, and what must an agent refuse to assume?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "tasks-and-accountability", "name": "Tasks, employment and accountability", "description": "What principal actually does and who answers for it.", "rationale": "A role is filled by people under an arrangement, and the arrangement decides liability, supervision and who may instruct whom.", "layers": [ { "id": "tasks", "name": "Tasks and typical duties", "description": "The work itself, and how it differs by setting.", "findings": [ { "id": "duty-record", "name": "Duties and setting", "description": "What the role does and where the work varies.", "questions": [ { "id": "duty-record-q01", "text": "What tasks define principal, and how do they differ between settings or seniority?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "duty-record-q02", "text": "Which tasks may only be done by this role, and which are shared with neighbouring roles?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "accountability", "name": "Employment and accountability", "description": "The relation under which the work is done and where responsibility sits.", "findings": [ { "id": "responsibility", "name": "Responsibility and supervision", "description": "Who instructs, who supervises, who is liable.", "questions": [ { "id": "responsibility-q01", "text": "Under what arrangement does someone act as principal, and who supervises or is liable?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "responsibility-q02", "text": "When something goes wrong, what does the model need to have recorded to answer who was responsible?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a principal came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a principal and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a principal is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a principal, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a principal, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a principal is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }