Karma, I think is a pretty word to describe the negative circumstances you create from making a bad decision.
One thing I have learned from the bad decisions I have made is no matter what my intent was, how open and honest I was, or that I try to be a kind, loving, and generous person - no matter how I rationalized it or justified it - if that bad decision was to satisfy what I felt that I needed and deserved at that time (my own selfishness) yet hurt someone in the making, the consequences of that decision came back to bite me in the ass.
No matter how you try, you cannot dress up a bad decision to look like a good one. It will always be a bad one and they will always yield bad results - and those are the ones that bite real hard.