Have I been raped, or has anyone attempted to murder me? Thankfully not, and I sympathize with anyone who has suffered through either of those horrendous things.

Have I ever been the victim of a crime? Yes, I've been mugged and carjacked at gun point.

As for why I believe what I believe, it is because inflicting harm on someone purely for the sake of harm doesn't benefit anyone. There is not a regain by society from that. The crime is not undone, and we are not guaranteeing in anyway that it will not be repeated. Even if we execute people, the human genome can create a serpent from saints. You will never "kill" this part of humanity, nor will you be able to keep it from sprouting up somewhere else should you contain it in one case. The only hope we have at all of finding meaningful change is discovering the combination of circumstances which allow people to transcend their own evils. Beyond that, we are just satisfying our own sense of blood lust, or vengeance, and furthering the philosophy of laying low that which you hate, even if it's pointless, or even counter productive.