// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho benefited from the baker's new "cui bono?" It was a loaf of gain.

Cui bono? (Classical Latin: [kui̯ ˈbɔnoː]), in English "to whom is it a benefit?", is a Latin phrase about identifying crime suspects. It depends on the fact that crimes are often committed to benefit their perpetrators; especially financially.

Use

The phrase is a double dative construction. It can also be rendered as cui prodest? ("whom does it profit?") and ad cuius bonum? ("for whose good?").

Background

 L. Cassius ille, quem populus Romanus verissimum et sapientissimum iudicem putabat, identidem in causis quaerere solebat, cui bono fuisset?

— Cicero: 'Pro Roscio Amerino'

Translation:

 Lucius Cassius, whom the Roman people used to regard as a most honest and most wise judge, was in the habit of asking time and again in lawsuits: "to whom might it be for a benefit?"

Cicero used the expression Cui bono in his 'Second Philippic', once again invoking Cassius as the source: "... adopt that maxim of Cassius: To whose advantage was it?"

American sociologist Peter Blau has used the concept of cui bono to differentiate organizations depending on who has primarily benefited: owners; members; specific others; or the general society.

See also

• Cherchez la femme
• Follow the money
• Whodunit

General:

• Brocard (law)
• List of Latin phrases
• List of legal Latin terms