Social scientists are interested in the factors that influence human behaviour. As such, they look at things like criminal or violent or antisocial actions and try to explain what the factors were that led the person to behave that way. Such analysis is invariably enlightening. Yet a danger soon arises, in that the action being investigated can begin to look as though it was entirely explicable, and a clear scientific explanation can be given for something that is essentially inexcusable. It is important to remember that just because an action can be explained or understood, it does not mean it is therefore justified. Simply establishing the causes involved does not exonerate the individual from the act they committed.