I was going to write something myself, but LWilliams and DavidSJA covered everything I was going to say. I particularly liked LW's reason vs excuse comment. Very true, but a distinction which is often overlooked. "The Ultimate Test: could the person restrain themselves from committing their offence in front of a police officer? If yes, responsible. If no, probably not responsible. Serial killers, child sexual abusers and addicts tend not to offend in front of police officers, thus one must conclude that they are entirely capable of regulating their behaviour." I agree with this most of the time. I would add a clause, however. Someone who had a strong enough addiction may get to the point where they cannot restrain themself. I do not believe, however (in the majority of cases), that this makes them a victim - at the end of the day, they are in this situation due to choices they made at some point in their life. To me, they, therefore, are not victims. This does not mean, however, that they do not deserve help and support. The choice I mentioned is often a silly mistake that has propagated to the extent that they are now having problems.