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I say "irrationally" taking life, because it is often possible to feel great sympathy with a murderer. Certain crimes passionnels can be forgiven without being condoned. Blackmailers invite direct retribution. Long provocation can be an excuse, as in that engaging case of some years ago, in which a respectable carpenter of seventy found he could no longer stand the incessant nagging of his wife. While she excoriatedhim from her throne in the kitchen- a daily exercise for fifty years- the husband went to his bench and came back with a hammer in each hand to settle the score. The testimony to his character, coupled with the sincerity implied by the two hammers, was enough to have him sent into quiet and brief seclusion .
我之所以说"毫无理性地"毁夺人命，是因为杀人犯往往可能得到一些人的怜悯，某些激怒之下的犯罪行为虽然不会免于追究，但可能得到宽大处理。敲诈者会受到直接的惩罚。长期的挑衅可以作为杀人的借口，就像几年前一桩引人注目的案件中，一个70多岁、受人尊重的木匠对其妻子无休止的唠叨忍无可忍时那样。妻子坐在厨房的宝座上责骂他--50年来每天都是这样--丈夫走到他的工作台前，双手各拿一把锤子回来跟她算帐。对木匠的证词以及从两把锤子中所得出的他的忠诚足以将他送入安静的隔离室少住些时日。
But what are we to say of the type of motive disclosed in a journal published by the inmates of one of our Federal penitentiaries ? The author is a bank robber who confesses that money is not his object: My mania for power, socially, sexually, and otherwise can feel no degree of satisfaction until I feel sure I have struck the ultimate of submission and terror in the minds and bodies of my victims … It's very difficult to explain all the queer fascinating sensations pounding and surging through me while I'm holding a gun on a victim, watching his body tremble and sweat …
然而，对于我们联邦的某所监狱所出版的一家刊物的一篇文章所披露的另一种犯罪动机，我们又该说些什么呢?那篇文章的作者是一个银行抢劫犯，他在供词中声称抢钱并不是他的真正目的："我对于社会地位、性生活及其他事物的追求达到了狂热的程度，我觉得只有当我能使我的受害者的身心都因极度的恐惧而完全被征服时，我的这些欲望才能得到满足。……不知为什么，每当我拿着枪对准别人，看到她浑身发抖、面上冷汗直冒的样子时，我总会感到自己身上洋溢着一种说不出的痛快。
