Meanings
- derogatoryslanggovernmentDescribing crimes committed against people deemed undesirable or subhuman, e.g., those with criminal records, sex workers, drug addicts, transients, or people of color.
I remembered Ed's offensive remark—“No human involved in that first murder anyway”—and tried to keep the disdain off my face.
2010, Martha C. Lawrence, Pisces Rising, page 334 more examples
He was not working with what the police facetiously call a no-humans-involved case, where everyone involved whether as witness or suspect already has a substantial criminal record.
2003, John Lescroart, chapter 37, in The OathCops closed them all with a code: NHI. The unsolved crimes had been back-burnered until a reporter revealed that the letters stamped on the police files were shorthand for No Human Involved.
2008, Linda Fairstein, Killer Heat, page 191“NHI-No Human Involved,” the cops used to say. It was only the newest shorthand for the idea that murders of blacks somehow didn't count. “Nigger life's cheap now,” a white Tennessean offered during Reconstruction, […]
2015, Jill Leovy, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, One World/Ballantine, →ISBN, page 6Wynter's earlier example is a demonstration of the discourse of “no human involved” and shows that young Black men in zones of police surveillance are denied humanity in order to excuse the inexcusable violence enacted upon them.
2020, Sara Smith, Political Geography: A Critical Introduction, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 63Synonyms: NHI
Synonyms & antonyms
phraseDescribing crimes committed against people deemed undesirable or subhuman, e.g., those with criminal records, sex workers, drug addicts, transients, or people of color.
Cite this entry
no human involved. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/no%20human%20involved
“no human involved.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/no%20human%20involved. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “no human involved,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/no%20human%20involved.
Source: no human involved on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.