It’s part of liberal ideology to view criminals as victims. This is also how they view the world. It applies to neocons as well. At home, they think all criminals need is more welfare/money, and they’ll stop behaving badly. Abroad, they think they can liberalize places like the Middle East and create democracies (or at least that’s the excuse for regime change campaigns). This ideology has led to some very bad outcomes over the past few decades. Hopefully, people are finally waking up to reality.