By the Atlantic
When confronted with horrific crimes, our instinct is often to label the perpetrators as “evil”, incapable of feeling any empathy and willing to exert violence.
But to Amanda Knox, who’s been on the other side of that label,
“the word evil feels like a cop-out. It is an excuse to stop thinking, to ignore the evidence, to hate and punish someone law enforcement didn’t, or wouldn’t, understand.”
As peacebuilders often reminded us, the first step in breaking cycles of violence is to see the “enemy” not as a one-dimensional villain, but as a complex human being shaped by circumstances, systems, and choices.
In this Atlantic essay, Amanda Knox argues that those who are not at the epicenter of a tragedy have a choice:
“We can judge and label, or we can challenge ourselves to make sense of the senseless, in hopes that we might find a way to prevent the next tragedy from occurring.”
Peacebuilding begins with those who choose understanding (which does not mean acceptance) over judgment. We need more people willing to make that choice.
Read the full essay here.
