"Evil" People or Behavior?

We cannot deny the existence of some individuals whose deeds – both in the past and in contemporary times – have caused and are causing great pain to other human beings. They enjoy or don’t care about the suffering they inflict in order to gain personal power, material benefit, control, revenge. It is only natural, therefore, to label these people as "evil". Their actions certainly are. But... who knows what is hidden in their souls, what twists their spirits have undergone that brought them to behave in abominable ways? We should never condone a harmful, cruel behavior. We can nevertheless allow ourselves to admit the existence of mysterious, out-of-hand causes that might have been at the origin of such behaviors.