[bots]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

It's not excuses though, there are no excuses for burgling houses and terrorising people, and no one is trying to do that. No one is trying g to say that there are valid reasons for those actions. I'm not even saying the resident shouldn't have stabbed him; he was right to take whatever action necessary when him and his family were threatened in their home. The burglar (knowingly, unless he was very stupid) risked his life with his criminal activity and paid the price.

The "shades of grey"... And where the aftermath becomes complicated... Lie in the fact that just because he was clearly not a good or moral person, doesn't necessarily mean that he didn't love or wasn't loved by his family and friends. People are extremely complex and, barring complete sociopaths (which are very rare), the "scummiest" people have more than one aspect to who they are. People who do awful things don't go home and sit around cackling and coming up with evil schemes like supervillains all day... That is the hard to swallow reality.

The effort to understand, not excuse, is actually hugely rewarding... It's fine if you have no interest in doing so but I really can't comprehend why you would want to stop anyone else from doing it.

If the process of "understanding" involves explaining their behaviour for reasons not within their own control then it is making excuses for them

[user104658]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

If the process of "understanding" involves explaining their behaviour for reasons not within their own control then it is making excuses for them

Who is doing that, though? You're assuming that understanding behaviour is the same thing as removing personal responsibility for that behaviour... It's not.