To say that a person or a thing is responsible for a negative situation is to place blame. There’s an effort to identify the source or the reason why something bad happened. You can use this word as a verb or as a noun:
Tom blamed the driver of the other car for the accident he was in.
Who was to blame for the accident?
Tom said the other driver was to blame.
Teresa blames her husband’s gambling habit for their current financial situation.
The children were blamed for starting the fire, but they weren’t the only ones responsible.
"Don’t blame me for your test results," said the teacher. "You didn’t study."
Who’s to blame for putting the ice cream cone on top of the computer?
Who’s to blame for this?
You can also use "blame" as a noun:
Who gets the blame for the accident?
The blame goes to the person who failed to yield.
There’s enough blame to go around for this situation. *
The teacher got the blame for the students’ poor test results.
*There’s enough blame to go around: many people are responsible for the mistake or problem.
Who’s to blame for this?