'Guilt by association' is the process of arbitrarily assigning guilt on the basis of a person's perceived relationships to places, events, situations or other people involved in situations. Its common usage is as a negative, implying that the association may be irrelevant or circumstantial to the subject. In legal practice, associations between parties are a natural element in any assessment of crimes, but presumption of innocence is the legal rule, which is a further connotation of the common use of the expression.