Blame Shifting.  It's disgusting. Only small children and cowards do it.
Narcissists are notorious for it.  It might look something like this:

Mom: What happened? Why is there paint all over Mommy's walls?
Small Child: Huh?
Mom: Why is there paint on your hands and shirt and all over your little brother?
Small Child: The baby did it.

Mom: You got an F. What happened?
Adolescent: Well, Mom, my teacher is real mean/ I ran out of time to finish my math because I had to do the chores you gave me/ I lost my homework because Soandso wouldn't clean up the desk/ etc

Mom: There's a big dent in the car. What happened?
Teenager: A tree got in the way/ I let my friend drive it for 5 minutes/ Somebody must have hit me when I was in the store/ You're making a big deal out of nothing/ etc

Wife: What happened? Why didn't the job work out?
Husband: They expect too much/ The boss really pissed me off/ The other guy tried to get me fired so I quit/ If you supported me like a good wife should, this wouldn't have happened/ etc

Husband: What the hell is wrong with you?
Wife: Please, just stop! Stop!
Husband: If you respected me more/ If you weren't such a slut/ If you just obeyed me (enter Bible quotes here)/ I wouldn't have to hit/ slap/ take the kids/ publicly shame/ etc

Even though I believe we are all guilty from time to time, blame-shifting is most often used by abusers to illicit guilt and therefore control and manipulation as you can see in this wheel:

http://www.domesticviolence.org/storage/PhyVio.jpg

Blame-shifters cannot exist without enablers. I enabled it for the entirety of my marriage, and before. Me and my self-flagellation...ugh. I now find it nearly equally disturbing. I didn't see it until I became enlightened by a couple years of therapy and some self-help books on the subject of controlling types.

Note of course, that blame-shifters and enablers can be man or woman as "text-book abusers" can be. We expect that sort of behavior from small children, but the danger becomes more obvious as the child goes into adulthood as parents, partners, and social influences enable it and new blame-shifters are born.

The cycle continues with the next generation and so on.