If we want to understand why violent crimes happen, we must look at the contextual factors, yes.

If we want to understand why violent crimes happen, we must look at the contextual factors, yes. We don’t have to feel empathy in our hearts for the people who have committed abuse or assault or murder, but we should be curious about why they behaved as they did. If we only chalk it up to evil or internal fault, we have no power to prevent such events on a societal scale. And they do have societal causes.