Childhood, upbringing, family background, social relations, traumatic experiences… We keep reviewing and seeking out the motives of criminals, exploring the subtlest emotions driving them. It’s not to put ourselves in their shoes and sympathize, or even forgive them; it’s not to find some reasons to exculpate their crimes; it’s not to kneel down before the so-called “complexity of human nature”; nor to introspect social conflicts, much less to alienate ourselves into monsters. We just want to have a fair trial – for ourselves and for those who still have hope for the world.

Zhang Xincheng, Fu Xinbo, Zhao Zhiwei, Yu Xiao, Liu Yihong, Zuo Linjie